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League Update : Forkin leads the way.

With a maximum point victory over YMCA, Merrion 1st XI move to joint second place with Malahide in the Premier League. The two teams battle it out at Anglesea Road on Saturday 28th but before then there is another T20 re-fix on Thursday in The Hills.

Merrion Open League 25th August
Div Position P W NR L BP Total
1st XI Prem 2nd 3 3 0 0 13 73
2nd XI 3 3rd 5 3 9 2 13 73
3rd XI 4 5th 2 1 0 1 6 26
4th XI 8 1st 5 4 0 1 15 95
5th XI 14 1st 5 4 0 1 16 96

This was perhaps Merrion’s best all round team performance of the season. Batting first Merrion made 150/5 in their 20 overs. The platform was set by openers Jack Carty [42] and Stephen Doheny [32] who put on 70 for the first wicket before being parted in the 10th over. The remainder of the runs were well spread around with all five of the top order making double figure contributions – John Anderson [33], Dom Joyce [14] and Max Sorensen [22*]. Perhaps the only disappointing aspect was, and not for the first time, the inability to accelerate scoring in the last five overs. Some of this may be down to the way the white ball used this year seems to get quite soft in the later overs of the innings.

With the sun shining and a fast outfield 150 was counted as about par. But this probably does not take fully into account the actual number of runs scored in T20 competitions in Leinster. In the League Cup this year there were only two successful run chases [out of 21] of over 150. Out of 50 games played the average runs scored in the first innings was 131. The average at Anglesea Road was 146. So 150 was a good score, though certainly not beyond the capabilities of YMCA..

But as it turned out the visitors never really got ahead of the run rate. Some tight overs at the start from Max Neville and Tom Stanton ensured that there was no quick start in the power play. And then the wickets began to fall. First the important wicket of Jack Tector to the skipper and then a four over spell from Daniel Forkin [in his second game] which produced the figures of 4/21. With two each for Amish Sidhu [2/22] and Jack Carty [2/7] and it was all over in the 17th over. A win by 67 runs.