Mens 4 home

Captained by Aaron Joseph, a seasoned cricketer, this team have potential to go all the way this season. The bat of Shafiq Khan is sure to steady the ship and we look forward to follow this teams progress throughout the season ahead.

The 4ths suffered a loss on sunday away to YMCA. Another strong performance with the ball getting YMCA out for 138. Great bowling by H. Parekh who took 5/26 off 8 overs. We started well with a good partnership from S. Parekh (40) and A. Battan (29) but then fell away. Some great bowling by YMCA's Amen who took 7 wickets saw that they won by 10 runs. Special mention for A. Chester who batted well in his first Phoenix game but collectively we failed again with the bat. We have 5 matches left and are in 3rd position so we will be going all out for the rest of the season to get promoted.

We bounced back from our 2 recent cup losses to get a hard fought win away to Clontarf. After some tight opening bowling from W. Clarke (5 overs 3 maidens 2/0), H. Parekh ripped through the Clontarf line up. (28/5). Well assisted at the other end from H. Mustaq (29/2). All round it was a great effort in the field to restrict them to 160. The run chase started poorly and after being 4/30 we recovered after a great partnership of 70 from the Parekh brothers. Still needing 35 with only 2 wickets in hand W. Clarke and F. Tinsley battled and fought their way to get the runs with 9 balls to spare. It what was a competitive match that swung both ways it was good to grind out a win.

The 4ths played Merrion in a cup match on saturday. we started poorly by losing 4 quick wickets but rescued by a great partnership from S. Samuel (41) and H. Parekh (33). We grafted out 126 but after a good start with the bowling fell to some ''extraordinary'' intermediate level batting from a merrion batsman. Our attention will re-focus on the league where we are currently 3rd with a match against clontarf this sunday. The boys will be fired up this weekend after a couple of narrow cup losses. Click for Images

The 4ths lost their semi final of the whelan cup on monday. we set a target of 109 to win and fell gut wrenchingly short of defending it. the guys fought the whole way and lost on the final ball. we will be back next year to reclaim the title we won last year and wish Rush and the other finalist all the best. Now for the cricketing story of the year....

Title- Suresh's wicket. ''Flight of the googly''.
It was a sunny day at Phoenix and our 2nd XI had battled and stroked their way to about 250. The bowlers had destroyed the Malahide attack and had them at 99/9. Fearing a late comeback the skipper, DJ, turned to the one man he knew he could rely on. Some say this man walks on water in his spare time, others say he runs marathons to raise money for sick children while listenning to ABBA. We know him only as '' Suresh''. After softenning the batsman up with a couple down leg side and a few full tosses he gave the batsman a ball so wide it went 3 pitches across. He poised and knew this was the time to strike. The ball was delivered, whistling through the air, moving both ways. The batsman, not expecting the ball anywhere near the pitch he was batting on lunged forward in shock and scooped a return catch. Caught and bowled!!! Suresh's first wicket noy only for Phoenix but in his life.

The 4th had a good win on Sunday at home against Clontarf. We bowled first and got them out for 118. Aaron Joseph 3/24. We then chased the runs down quickly and won by 8 wickets. Suresh Samuel 33. It was an inspiring win as we play Clontarf in the 2nd round of the Whelan cup so it leaves buoyed up as to our chances.

We won this competition last year and are going to defend out title to the death this year. We played civil service on tuesday night and won by 66 runs. Highlights included Fraser Tinsley 28, Sean Devlin 32, Raj Gopal (not out 30) and aaron joseph (not out 34 off 11 balls). We bowled really well with Mo Shiraz 12-3 off 3 overs and aaron Joseph 20-4 off 4 overs. It was a good start to the competition and we play Clontarf in the next round on Monday 23rd June in Clontarf.

We had ahome match last sunday against Knockharley. We batted first and struggled for runs and were all out 135. Once again we bowled well with graham mooney being on a hat trick but lost by 4 wickets.

Phoenix 4's came up against some tough opposition on Sunday and unfortunately could not get the victory. Phoenix got off on the right foot and won the toss - electing to bat. We hit 196 with a great opening knock by Anit Battan (43). We bowled well but couldn't get them out and lost by 5 wickets. That leaves us 2 and 2 but we are hoping to learn from it and bounce back next week against Knockharley.

May 18th
Phoenix elected to field first and with some keen bowling from the Phoenix side, Avondale were all out for 190. The Phoenix team chased the runs in 30 overs to win the match. The highlight of the match was a keen 108 from Shafiq Khan, our opening batsman. Well done Shafiq. Much to the delight of captain Aaron Joseph this now leaves the Phoenix side with a firm 2 wins and 1 loss for the season so far.