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This Thursday sees the first fixture of the new ODI Super League, as England welcome Ireland to a bio-bubble protected Ageas Bowl for three…
Supporting Irish cricket is often a bizarre rollercoaster where you simultaneously experience every human emotion at once in a way that the human mind…
Ireland do have better options. McCarthy bowled 5 balls in the first game before getting injured, and is a consistent wicket taking threat. Boyd Rankin has plenty of international experience and was also injured. Adair was clearly still not 100% in his only game, bowling a fair bit slower than normal.
There’s also David Delany coming through the ranks, a genuine 90mph+ fast bowler, unfortunately also injured at the moment.
Maybe we just need to invest in our medical staff…
WATCH: Ireland stun England to win third ODI
Absolutely, I was hoping the top order would keep it together after two bad games, but never could have predicted that partnership from Stirling and Balbirnie. A truly world class performance.
The XI for game 3 was also the youngest team Ireland have fielded in about a decade, which is incredibly promising for the future, particularly as the Super League guarantees them plenty of top level experience.
How Ireland can upset England
No it wasn’t. The top order lost the game in the first half an hour. Delighted to see Campher do well on debut however, and I’m sure the rest of the batsmen will improve for the remaining games.
How Ireland can upset England
It’s still very much a niche sport (although at one time it was the most popular sport in the country, it narrowly missed out on being considered a member sport of the GAA, and almost completely dropped away).
Support is definitely growing, and the Irish love a good sporting bandwagon, so every high profile result helps. As Cari said, Irish Rugby is a good example, go back 20 years and only a small number of people were that interested. Then Ireland got a group of great players coming through that started to actually win things, and now Rugby is huge in Ireland. Fingers crossed cricket can do the same.
How Ireland can upset England
It’s fun to indulge in a bit of it from time to time. In all honestly a 2-1 series defeat would be an amazing achievement. Realistically some strong showings from the younger players would be what I would consider a successful series. There’s a lot of ODIs to play before the next World Cup, so getting players like Tector, Delany and Campher experience against England now will help with qualification a few years down the road.
How Ireland can upset England
I’ll admit my previous comment was very optimistic
The pros and cons of Ireland’s tour of the West Indies
Could they? Absolutely! Will they? Unlikely.
Ireland and Afghanistan currently receive less than half what Zimbabwe do from the ICC, and while that will change at some point, its a slow process.
Another option would be to reduce the requirements in terms of infrastructure and technology required to host a test. It costs Ireland an estimated €1 Million to host a test match. If the ICC requirements were lessened, then it might be more affordable.
The pros and cons of Ireland’s tour of the West Indies
That’s a valid point, although I don’t think there is a single Irish fan who would choose to move KOB back to 5/6.
He has been great opening with Stirling, and his record further down the order in T20s wasn’t great (mainly as he’d often come in late in the innings with the game all but lost and the RRR at 14 an over – he’d have no choice but to play a very risky game, so a lot of low scores are to be expected).
A weaker finish is a price worth paying for the strong start he provides, in my opinion. Especially as there are players coming through with enough potential to improve that area.
The pros and cons of Ireland’s tour of the West Indies
Financial reasons most likely. Ireland were supposed to have three Tests this year; vs Bangladesh in Dublin and away to Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka (and there would be a great chance of picking up a first test win somewhere in that schedule).
Unfortunately all three have been called off – hosting Tests is expensive. Bitterly disappointing for Irish fans who a desperate to see more red ball matches.
The pros and cons of Ireland’s tour of the West Indies
Hi Paul,
It’s very much a team in transition, so match experience would have been the main goal. A win in the ODI series would also have been a key target, which Ireland were just one incredibly tight third umpire decision away from achieving. Realistically a T20 win was not expected, so it was great to see it happen.
The pros and cons of Ireland’s tour of the West Indies
And shows the benefit of multi game series. Normally Ireland/The Netherlands etc would have to make do with random one-off games. Imagine if all Ireland had was the first ODI, they would have had no chance to grow/learn/improve and would have gone away looking pretty hopeless.
WATCH: Ireland stun England to win third ODI