Ireland v New Zealand: It’s just Cricket
For anybody following the cricket without actually watching it - which is kind of like the opposite of stalking, I imagine - Ireland were doing great today against New Zealand. Until the last three overs.
Whatever happened to Ireland’s bowling it wasn’t just big Boyd Rankin who was doing the business for Ireland but Langford-Smith had impressive figures and Ireland consistently kept the Black Caps down and took wickets all day and not just a couple of early ones.
So after 47 overs NZ were 218 for 7. And then things got silly. In the next three overs boundaries were casually hit, windows were broken and Ireland now find themselves chasing a total of 269 to win. Hmm.
UPDATE: Ireland are falling apart as they’ve just lost four wickets in as many overs leaving them on 133 for 8 after 35 overs. What chances Ireland had realistically went with the O’Brien brothers. We’re into miracle territory now for Ireland’s tailenders.
In their previous game Ireland had done well against the number one ODI team in the world, South Africa, but had probably left themselves short of about 20 to 30 runs to put South Africa under pressure. And even though Ireland, Rankin again, took two very early wickets, the South Africans didn’t panic and just did what they had to do to reach their total, though Irish bowler Mooney’s nightmare didn’t help.
And then to make it worse the other minnow - sorry I mean Associate Member - Bangladesh, didn’t just beat South Africa they thrashed them joyously.
Meanwhile England provided great entertainment in their last couple of games, against Australia yesterday when they lost, and in a tremendous game against Sri Lanka which they lost by just two runs. In both games Irishman Joyce contributed nothing - which seems to be the way of this World Cup for the England opening order.
See Related Cricket Posts:
• Ireland v England in World Cup Cricket
• Dramatic Irish World Cup Debut
• Ed Leahy’s Beginner’s Guide to Cricket
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