2023 Halverstown 2 Season in Statistics
A second season in the league for Halverstown 2 (H2) turned out to be a little more successful than 2022, finishing 7th out of 9 teams in Division 19. You might think that we avoided relegation, partially by there being two teams below us but also because Division 20 was a Development Division. However, in 2024 all divisions will have 8 teams and, with extra teams in the league, there will be a proper Division 20. And we are in it. Restructuring is relegation by another name I guess. I have again set out the top performances under various headings. We used 31 players in the season, 5 more than last year, and completed 13 games, despite a very wet summer. We won 4 of them. First chart is Top Batters, with a minimum of 3 innings for inclusion.  

H2 Top Batters 2023.JPG

I wrote last year that statistics don’t lie, merely our interpretation of them. I am not sure how to interpret Stuart Conroy topping the averages despite only 3 innings and his averages distinctly influenced by a 41 not out! It was just enough to beat Matt’s fine season with the bat and to finish ahead of son Sean, despite the latter’s super total of 193 runs. Sean’s 91 not out at Leinster was unforgettable, as was Adriaan’s accompanying 54. I said that we needed more batters in double figures. We got it, with our top ten scoring an average of 158.7 runs, up 22% on last year.  

H2 Top Wicket Takers 2023.JPG

Again our bowlers performed well, taking more wickets than 2022. The positions and figures are taken directly from Cricket Leinster stats, so me being above Matt, despite taking the same number of wickets, is due to the other factors! Worthy of note is that 22% of Kevin Hodson’s overs were maidens.  Even more worthy of note is Brian McAllister’s excellent “Fifer” versus Ongar, accounting for over half of his wickets for the season!

H2 Top Average per Wicket 2023.JPG

It is easier to do well in this stat if you bowl a few overs, take a couple of wickets then move on to H1- as illustrated above! The more you bowl the harder it is to rank highly here. Kudos therefore to those who carried the bowling weight of the season, even if the average runs per wicket doesn’t look as good. Take this stat together with economy rates for a fuller picture. 

4. BEST BOWLING ECONOMY RATES
Our economy rates were, once again, very satisfactory. I drew the line at 5 runs per over, tough but it represents an opposing team scoring 200. This left Stu Hayes marginally outside with 5.11 - exactly the same as last year! Junaid’s performance was outstanding given the number of overs he bowled.

H2 Top Ecomony Rate 2023.JPG

5. TOP ALL ROUNDER PERFORMANCES
This is a new statistic to me and don’t ask me how Cricket Leinster weights runs scored versus wickets taken to come up with the positions, but here they are anyway. Well done Ahsan, Junaid and Matt, who were very close.

H2 Top All Rounder 2023.JPG

6. CATCHES and STUMPINGS
 Our field catch rate was 2.3 per match, just a fraction down on last year. Junaid took 6 of them, several of them caught-bowled. Tojo, in just a handful of games, took 4 and Jim 3. Matt, Stu Hayes, Brian and Ahsan took two apiece. Cecil had a season to remember behind the stumps, taking 5 catches and 3 stumpings, his 8 wickets comparing with 3 last season.
Again, what can we learn for the coming season? We have worked on our batting and there is a distinct and noticeable improvement. Nevertheless it does need more work, this time in aiming for more consistency across the season. Our bowlers have improved with both bat and ball, but we could do with some more wickets taken by change bowlers.
We fulfilled all our fixtures and I hope had some fun. Again, thanks to Cecil for his Vice-captaincy: it would be impossible to function without his help and advice.
Des Drumm 23/01/2024



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