Finally! Having gradually improved their performances throughout the Friends Provident campaign, the Irish signed off from the tournament by putting the full-timers from Worcester out of the competition in extraordinary fashion at New Road. Having been asked to bat first by Vikram Solanki, Ireland were deep in the mire at 75-6 and only a stand of 57 between Trent Johnston and skipper Kyle McCallen (last man out and top scorer with 40) gave some measure of respectability to the total. 152 should never have been enough – the fact that it was was down to a magical opening spell from Peter Connell who destroyed the Worcs line-up with 5 wickets for 2 runs in 14 balls as Ireland bowled the pros out for 58, a record low score.
Match Summary Ireland 152 (48.5 ov) McCallen 40; Whelan 3-22 Worcestershire 58 (20.3 ov) Connell 5-19 Ireland won by 94 runs
Ireland next turn their attention to the thrash-fest that is Twenty20 with 3 warm-up games prior to the main tournament where they will face India & Bangladesh – one win may be enough to propel the Irish to more super-eight shenanigans. I’ll be at the Bangladesh game at Trent Bridge on June the 8th (I’ll try and do some Tweeting if I can work it out between now and then) and there are still tickets available here with Ireland the hors d’oeuvres prior to Australia vs Sri Lanka under the lights. A full days entertainment for £50 and the “delights” of Nottingham to sample? Who could refuse!
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