Ireland v New Zealand
At the Guardian, Mike Selvey is weeping “for the ghosts of calypsos past”.. but the cricket goes on. Ireland face New Zealand today hoping to emulate Bangladesh’s win against South Africa – cabin fever was to blame apparently – and move away from the bottom of the table. They’ve also received a surprise donation. 2.30pm start, coverage via the usual suspects, either over by over, or scorecard, or radio commentary. Adds NZ win toss, will bat first. Then NZ 263-8 from 50 overs. Expensive final overs again, 53 runs from the last four. Now Ireland 134 all out from 37.4 overs. Skittled in the end. Once the O’Briens’ partnership was broken Ireland were always going to struggle. Trent Johnston’s dismissal sealed it.
Flemming caught Porterfield bowled Rankin 10 from 11 balls.
These are from the country that gave us, whisper it, “Shortland Street”. Come on Ireland! Do it not just for us but for television viewers everywhere!
That’s a healthy run rate from NZ, we are going to have to slice into their wicket store if we are goin g to clip their wings.
Unfortunately Ireland’s tidiest bowler, Andre Botha, failed a fitness test this morning and isn’t playing.
Still. There’s Marshall down.
59 for two. sounds good to me.
If the bowling stays tight in these final 12 overs, and an odd wicket falls, this could finish up being a close game.
That’s at 172-5 btw
What’s an official Power Play in cricket, Pete?
It requires the fielding side to set an attacking field – keeping a certain number of players within the circle for a set number of overs.
That allows the batting side to go for boundaries should they want to.. and are able to.
From the Guardian…
‘We all celebrated their victory over Pakistan, and Bangladesh’s over India, but really we were wrong to do so. In sporting terms, romance is dead – cup upsets are a bad thing because they mean that the integrity of the later rounds, the big stuff, is often irrevocably compromised,’
I wonder does he similarly wish for an England elimination for, er, the good of the game?!?
Ireland doing well, but I suspect NZ have done enough.
To borrow from baseball terminology we need a good set up guy (s) and closer.
It’s often better to be batting second because you know what score you have to achieve. Australia against England yesterday beautifully modulated its batting and calmly and thoroughly won by 7 wickets. I am really amazed by the depth of Australia’s batting talent. Sure there were three out, but there were at least another five following who have high average scores.
264 runs is a lot for Ireland to get though and Ireland’s run rate is around 2.5 to 3 runs per over – it needs over 5 runs an over to win.
Does Ireland have the batting depth – probably not.
O’Brien brothers having fun… that’s probably the way to look at it for now… If they can keep things ticking over, and not get out, there’s a chance we might be able to chase something improbable at the end… still a big ask, but it’s an answer to a number of condescending put downs from a certain direction…
Damn. Kevin run out at 49 off 45 balls… Zip it Mick…
It looks like Ireland is following the same mode Australia did yesterday. Slow and sure. I agree with you Mick that if there are enough batsmen at the end some can be sacrificed for more runs.
The run rate is still too slow though – 3.8 per over which is an improvement on the earlier rate.
Come on Ireland!!
What must India and Pakistan be thinking!
> What must India and Pakistan be thinking!
Probably about other things that aren’t so humiliating! Or about local cricket. Note this from the London Telegraph today: “While some England batsmen were struggling against Australia on Sunday, Marcus Trescothick made a triumphant return to action by scoring 256 for Somerset in a 50-over match against Devon at the County Ground in Taunton.”
Even if Ireland does not do all that well in the remaining matches for this World Cup, the excellent experience gained may bring it to Test standard more quickly.
Next Ireland match is on Friday the 13th against Australia. I’ll be sitting on the fence for this match.
Hope it’s not a barbed-wire fence, merrie. G-dye mate.
I can’t understand the Guardian’s logic (which I’ve also seen elsewhere). Logically it entails that there should have been only eight teams at this World Cup. Then exactly where does “promotion/relegation” from this imaginary Cricket Premier League come in?
It’s impeccably circular logic: 1) Pakistan and India should be there because they’re better teams than Bangladesh or Ireland. 2) If they get beaten by Bangladesh or Ireland, see rule 1. Sri Lanka would have never broken into the top flight if people who believed that certain teams were “born to rule” had their way.
I was watching this match on Sky and became increasingly angry as Sky TV kept using the Southern Irish flag to represent the Ireland team. Don’t they realise it’s an all-Ireland team? Or do they have Irish nationalists working behind the scenes at Sky?
To most people in the world Ireland is Eire, the Red Hand place is just a province (or [temporarily] part of a province).
I see Willowfield is now infecting the cricket thread as he already does on soccer threads.
Latest conspiracy theory is that Aussie Rupert Murdoch’s Sky has fallen into the hands of irish nationalists!
Get a life!!
G’day mate(or should that be Slan agat?)
I think you will find that the tricolour is the flag of northern Ireland!