Ireland Cricket World Cup Discussion

Well, despite my previous prognostications, Ireland have started very well against England. 117-4 and England apparently there for the taking according to some reports.

 

Wow. Keep us updated!

 

128-4 with England looking uncomfortable by some accounts. Ed Joyce, the Irishman playing for England, was first man out for 1 run scored, btw.

 

He decided that for his international cricket opportunities, Ireland wasnt the place and he spent I believe it was 3 or 5 years playing in the English county scene without pulling on the pads for the Irish. Therefore he became an English citizen and is now an English cricketer. Good choice 4 or 5 years ago but Ireland are making a little run at the moment, they are improving and Joyce was the player that would of pushed them and improved them even more then what they are.

But couldnt do much today, terrible judgement of his ball but still a solid ball.

Go the Irish

-Simo

 

He's not English and didn't become an English citizen - no such thing, btw - he qualified under the residency rule. He played for Ireland as recently as 2005.

Bottom line, Test cricket is where it's at in cricket - these One Day Internationals and Twenty/20s and even this World Cup are nice, but if you have aspirations to being a serious cricketer, you play Test cricket. Joyce is good enough to play and went with England as Ireland don't play Test cricket. Interestingly, his first game for England was against Ireland and his brother played for Ireland in Stormont.

Anyway, England with a fight back, now 159-4.

 

I stand corrected, I thought you couldnt play for your country for at least 3 years before changing to a new country. Thanks for clearing that up Sam.

4-172

 

England pulling away, 226-5, 47 overs. That lead is not insurmountable for Ireland, but if England's bowling is even mediocre, it'll be a tough haul for Ireland.

 

239-5, 47.5 overs.

 

266 runs for 7 wickets, 50 overs bowled with England scoring 5.32 runs per over.

That's it for England and Ireland must better those numbers. A very tall order for Ireland. My prognostications just might be back on track. A close loss looks to be as much as they can achieve. Still, it is in their hands.

 

England got 94 from the last 10 overs.

that is an insane amount of runs to score from the last 10

 

Yeah, 6s were being served up faster than 6 packs.

Anyway Ireland all out for 218. England by 48 runs. About what you'd expect.

 

watch it live at http://www.channelsurfing.net

 

Ireland were destroyed and whumped by South Africa and New Zealand; no huge surprise there as those two should/will make the semis. The only chance of winning a game (and not finishing bottom of the Super 8) is to beat Bangladesh, the next worst team, but they've already beaten South Africa.

As I said earlier, Ireland's best hope will be a close loss; barring a miracle, and they might even need two, they will finish bottom. But there's no huge shame there as they are the only non-Test side in the Super 8.

And just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, next up, Australia, only the best team in the world. Oh, well........

 

It doesn't really matter thoughh does it? I'm sure that those concerned with cricket are absolutely delighted with how they've raised awareness of the game here.

 

Betcha the players aren't quite so nochalant about this......

 

They got absolutely hockeyed by Australia today; I'm not sure that it was ever more than batting practise for the Aussies. On the plus side, at least we don't have to listen to the Aussies whinge for now, anyway......

 

Well, whaddya know? Potential upset of Bangladesh on the cards.

 

Ireland beat Bangladesh, convincingly, winning by 74 runs. That's a real win.

Big upset really, and Ireland now have gained permanent One Day International status. Impressive stuff. With one game to play - Sri Lanka - there's no way they will make the semis, but then again, they never were anyway. But any victory in the Super 8 was always going to be an upset. Maybe Bangladesh is not of the order of Pakistan, but in this WC, Ireland have beaten 2 Test sides and drawn with a 3rd. That's a decent standard.

 

Go us!

 

A monumental whumping by Sri Lanka to end the tournament for Ireland. In beating Bangladesh and keeping England close for a bit, they did somewhat better than expected, but the losses to New Zealand, Australia and Sri Lanka show how much work they have to do.

 

Ireland will be on the official ICC One Day rankings, since they beat two Test playing nations. I think Kenya are the only other team on their that is a non-Test playing team.