Ireland has done what no other Associate Member has done ever before. They have rolled over a Full Test Member in three consecutive World Cups. It started in 2007, when they beat Pakistan that saw the Test-playing nation exit the World Cup early, in 2011 they beat their neighbours England chasing 300-plus and yesterday, they again chased 300-plus and beat the West Indies. By the way, they also beat Bangladesh in the 2007 World Cup.
That they beat the West Indies should not a shocker. Unlike the team of 2007, the Irish team of today is not an amateur lot. The players are professional cricketers with English county contracts. So talented is their pool that they have players outside their 15-member squad that are playing professional cricket. They have honed their skills on varied pitches in the UK playing against some stiff quality competition. An extraordinary statistic in World Cup cricket is that a total of 300-plus has been successfully chased only five times and Ireland has done this on three occasions.
Ireland’s preparation for the World Cup has been exceptional for an Associate Member. They toured Australia and New Zealand in September and October of 2014 to familiarise themselves in local conditions, played in the UAE in January in a 3-nation ODI series which they won beating Afghanistan and Scotland. They also played a warm-up against a fairly strong New Zealand A team that consisted of several players of its World Cup squad.
On a flat wicket in Nelson, New Zealand, Ireland dominated the match from the very beginning. It lost its way during the 2nd half of West Indies batting when Darren Sammy and Lendl Simmons played exceptional cricket aided by some wayward bowling, which nearly took the game away from the Irish. However, the manner William Porterfield and Paul Stirling started the Irish innings using the pace of the West Indian bowlers to score freely, a belief emerged that the target of 305 was never in doubt. Watching the Irish innings, one got the feeling of a team that was full of confidence. Unlike many we know, not one of its batters looked rushed. They maintained a steady flow of a run rate that hovered between five and six runs an over. After Porterfield departed, the pace was maintained by Ed Joyce and the others. Stirling, after getting hit on the helmet by a Jerome Taylor bouncer, confidently dispatched the next ball for a maximum. Such was Ireland’s determination.
The morning session saw a West Indies batting line up that struggled against some disciplined Irish bowling. Porterfield shuffled his bowlers on a regular basis. Ireland’s seamers - John Mooney, Max Sorensen and Kevin O’Brien - are not the fastest guys around but they are accurate. They followed the basic rules of bowling, which is to bowl as straight as you can. Its spinners George Dockrell and Andrew McBrine were on target as the West Indies top-order crumbled. At the 24-over mark, the West Indies score read 87 for 5 with Chris Gayle, Dwayne Smith, Darren Bravo, Marlon Samuels and Denesh Ramdin back in the pavilion. It was left to Simmons (102) and Sammy (89) to resuscitate the innings, which they did in remarkable fashion. When the West Indies score read 304 for 7, very few contemplated an Irish win. Simmons, however, did express his uneasiness during the break.
Ireland is head and shoulders above the other Associate Members. It has changed the yardstick as far as the quality of an Associated Member nation is concerned and over time, this football crazy nation will get the better of many of the “big boys.”
While Bangladesh may console itself after this result, let there be no mistake that Ireland has raised its bar by targeting other Full Members that are much better than Bangladesh. “As Porterfield said after Monday’s win: “I don’t see it as an upset. We came into this game prepared to win. We are looking to pick up two points in every game.”
The cricketing world should not be surprised if Ireland does live up to Porterfield’s statement.
