Winners and Losers From Week One at the Irish Inter-Provincial T20 Trophy

Jun 20, 2025

It was a low key start to the IP20 down at the Mardyke in Cork with Irish international’s missing the first day’s play, but it quickly developed into a good week’s cricket with youngsters standing up, old heads failing and a career rising from the ashes (no, not those Ashes).

Here we’ve run the rule over the winners and losers from the first round.

The Winners

Stephen Doheny

The man with the “technical flaw” produced what was undoubtedly the best innings the IP20 has ever seen with a stunning 150* against the Northern Knights. Flaying the ball to all parts of the admittedly small ground, the Merrion man did his utmost to keep himself in conversation for a national spot.

Now the all-time leading run-scorer in the IP20, if Doheny can back up this innings over the coming weeks it will certainly make life difficult for the selectors for September’s T20I series against England.

Robbie Millar

The Eglinton leggie was a relative unknown to many tuning in, coming through the Warriors pathway and serving several times as the “travelling reserve” for the U19 team he’s never really been in the spotlight.

An excellent display of leg-spin bowling across all three days now has him the talk of the (relatively small) town, picking up big names in Tim Tector, Lorcan Tucker and Morgan Topping. The 22 year old was economical as well as penetrative and has certainly added a much needed extra dimension to the Warriors attack.

John McNally

Marked as one to watch since the 2024 U19 World Cup (I may have referred to him as “John Mooney reincarnated”), McNally enjoyed a winter down under with Randwick Petersham thanks to Cricket Ireland’s Overseas Scholarship Program.

The experience seems to have done him a world of good as he looked in great form across the first two days, taking four wickets including both Ireland’s white and red ball captains. With the bat he rescued the Red’s innings from complete disaster with a rapid 64(39) against the Warriors before joining in Stephen Doheny’s fun with a 40(30) against the Knights.

Day three didn’t quite work out for the 20 year old as Tim Tector took a liking to his bowling, but the future is certainly bright for the young all-rounder who should find himself in Wolves contention.

Thanks for reading Carnival Cricket! This post is public so feel free to share it.

Graham Hume

Back from injury, the burly South African showed what Ireland had been missing in their recent encounters with the West Indies, bowling economically both at the top and at the death.

Against the Warriors his first two overs went for just 9 runs, while against the Lightning it was 13 runs and the prized wicket of Ross Adair with a bumper. Coming back at the end against the Warriors his final two overs went for 11, picking up Neil Rock and Ben Calitz.

Many will decry his lack of pace but at both domestic and international level he is proving to be a canny operator time and time again.

Gavin Hoey

The young leg-spinner may have been disappointed to not get a game during the West Indies recent tour, with Ben White preferred for the lone T20I in Bready, but he continues to excel at domestic level. 4 wickets on Thursday ripped the heart out of the Red’s middle order and brought him to 11 wickets in 5 Inter-Provincial games this season.

Wednesday saw him strangle the Warriors, conceding just 17 runs off his 3.5 overs, before arresting a Leinster wobble by powering 20 off 8 balls to get the Lightning over the line.

Matt Hollard

Nothing gets the blood pumping like speed, as demonstrated by all the talk surrounding Liam McCarthy’s recent call-up. On a fairly sleepy Tuesday with the international regulars gone, a 26 year-old from Johannesburg made everyone sit up and pay attention with some serious wheels.

Hollard is playing his club cricket for Balbriggan alongside his younger brother Jordan, with both having ambitions to play for Ireland. Matt was expensive across the three games (who wasn’t?) but took 5 wickets, all top order bats. Expect to see him in a Lightning jersey again soon.

The Losers

Paul Stirling

On a Mardyke Ground with runs flowing left, right and centre Ireland’s white-ball captain managed to get himself out for scores of 9(9) and 13(14), continuing a poor recent run in T20s. Two of his four boundaries were fortunate edges to the rope.

Although still making runs in 50 over cricket, Ireland will need the big man from Belfast to step up ahead of next year’s T20 World Cup in India. One wonders how much rope he has with selectors if he cannot get out of this slump soon, particularly with so many top-order players making big, quick runs around him.

Kian Hilton

After impressing with the bat at the 2024 U19 World Cup the young South African has thus far failed to make the step up to senior cricket, first for the Warriors last year and now with the Reds. A breezy 25 in the final game against Leinster showed some potential but it was his glovework that set alarm bells ringing.

Twice across the week a top edge went straight up and twice it was Hilton under it. The first one he managed to settle under well but the ball went straight through his gloves, the second he lost in the air, circling under it desperately before it found ground.

Neil Rock

Perhaps a slightly harsh inclusion given he managed 31(25) against the Warriors but it was worrying just how many times he swung and missed. That 31 included 4 sixes, taking just 7 runs off the other 21 balls he faced.

Ireland’s backup keeper was clearly frustrated with his own performance as he began to dance around the crease to try and manufacture something but it mostly only resulted in further fresh air. A first ball duck against the Reds further compounded matters and the feeling is that Sam Topping may be on the verge of overtaking him for national selection.

Lorcan Tucker

It was more the manner of dismissal than the low scores which Lorcan Tucker will be disappointed with this week. Twice the Leinster captain came to the crease with his team well ahead of the game and twice he holed out to trigger a mini-collapse.

He will always be a positive player but as the Lightning’s full-time captain this season you would like to see a bit more nous and experience to manage the game. All of this equally applies to George Dockrell a spot below him.

Suliman Safi

It was a lean week for the former Afghanistan U19 captain after a strong start to his IP50 career. The 22 year old scored two fifties in his first three IP50 games but a run of 0, 1, 8 in Cork has dampened the excitement briefly as he nicked off twice early on.

With many expecting the North County man to eventually make a run at the national squad, there’ll be pressure in the next three weeks to step up and find some T20 form.

Swapnil Modgill

Modgill is a curious case. Playing for Leinster last year and shifted down to Cork this season, he has now played 14 InterPro games across List A and T20. Batting at the top of the order he has yet to make a score higher than 30 and that continued this week with returns of 11(13), 0(2) and 7(13). The duck was unfortunate as he and Stephen Doheny got into a horrendous mix-up running, but if the pattern continues he could find himself out of the Reds team fairly quickly.

Interestingly he was also brought on to bowl in all three games, something he’s never done before at domestic level.