Cup’s last eight draw is kind as Ulster teams get home advantage
GARY Wilson insists that there were enough positives in the first Twenty20 international to believe that Ireland can finish closer to India when the teams complete the two-match series in Malahide this afternoon.
James Shannon and Peter Chase both produced career-best Ireland performances in the 76run defeat, and if a couple more players come to the party today then the powerful India side, who will make five changes to their line-up, may not have it all their own way again.
“We’re disappointed we lost the game, but we had enough positives to show we can play against teams like this,” said T20 captain Wilson.
“We have been beaten by 70odd runs, which is a big margin in T20 cricket, but if we can negate their spin on Friday that will stand us in good stead.
“At least we don’t have to get ourselves up for the second game. To play in front of 9,000 people in Malahide on days like this against probably the best Twenty20 side in the world, if you can’t get up for that you can’t get up for anything. So we will dust ourselves down and come back on Friday with the same positive mindset.”
The biggest selection decision, which Ireland are expected to repeat today, was the omission of William Porterfield.
Just three weeks after he voluntarily relinquished the T20 captaincy, Porterfield has sat out the last three games, starting in the Tri-Series in the Netherlands, and Wilson admitted it was a hard decision to leave him out of such a high-profile match.
“We know what he can do, he has done it in Twenty20 in the past, but we wanted to go with Shanno. We backed him in Holland, we think he can be that x-factor player at the top of the order and he showed that on Wednesday (scoring 60 off 35 balls; the next top score was 12).
“To break into any team you need to be given an opportunity and he was often down the order before, not in his specialist position. It’s fair to say he’s a top order player. But we are very much a batting group and William is very much part of it going forward,” said Wilson.
The strength of the India side is such that in-form KL Rahul, ranked No.12 in the world, and Dinesh Kartik were both left out, but captain Virat Kholi confirmed immediately after the match that the five squad members not involved on Wednesday would play today, so Rahul and Kartik will come in along with pace bowler Umesh Yadav, 18-year-old off spinner Washington Sundar and the uncapped Siddharth Kaul.
Ireland are expected to be unchanged and are selecting from only 13 after a side strain forced Josh Little to withdraw from the squad. Cricket Ireland decided not to call up a replacement, but David Delany has joined the squad in a development capacity following the successful inclusion, in a similar role, of Ireland Under-19 captain Harry Tector for last Sunday’s Ed Joyce Testimonial game in Sussex.
Today’s action is the second half of a double header at Malahide, with the Ireland Women’s side in action against Bangladesh starting at 11am.
The visitors won the first of their three-match T20 series off the last ball yesterday after losing their sixth wicket off the penultimate delivery to a run out. But a single, deflected down the leg side off the last ball, left Ireland a disappointed side.
Ireland’s failure to build partnerships – the highest was 37 – proved costly and with only Gaby Lewis, 28 off 16 balls, scoring at significantly over a run-a-ball, they totalled 134-8.
When Bangladesh lost their fourth wicket, they still needed 46 from 28 balls for victory, but they took control to leave only four required from the final over.
Despite bowler Eimear Richardson’s heroics, the Tigresses got home.
Waringstown’s Cara Murray, the one Ulster-based player in the Ireland side, bowled only one over for eight runs.
Women’s T20 International Claremont Road: Ireland 134-8 (I Joyce 41, G Lewis 28, L Delany 22, K Garth 20; Jahanara Alam 5-28) Bangladesh 135-6 (20 overs, Nigar Sultana 46; E Richardson 2-20, G Lewis 2-20).
Bangladesh Women won by 4 wickets. IT WAS another kind draw for Ulster teams in the Irish Cup when all three sides in the last eight were given home advantage in the quarter-finals.
Holders Waringstown will face Pembroke, second round conquerors of North Down at Comber, and Civil Service North, after a straightforward win over Balbriggan in the previous round, will host Clontarf at Stormont.
Strabane, the only North West survivors from the first round, followed up with victory over Muckamore in round two and have been rewarded with a game against Phoenix, who knocked out an under-strength Instonians side at Shaw’s Bridge in the last round.
Waringstown will be confident of extending their impressive recent Irish Cup record – they have won 14 of their last 15 in the competition – with another victory over the team they beat in the semi-finals in 2015 and 2017, the two years they have won the trophy.
But CSN, despite their unbeaten record in 50-over Cup matches this season, face much more formidable opposition with the visit of Clontarf, Leinster League winners in two of the last three seasons and three-times Senior Cup winners since 2012.
The remaining quarter-final will be at Anglesea Road, where CIYMS bowed out in the last round, with Merrion at home again this time to defending but fading Leinster League champions Leinster, who ended Carrickfergus’s interest
Ulster Schools completed a remarkable turnaround thanks to Methody’s James Hunter to win the inter-provincial against Leinster Schools by seven wickets.
Needing 34 to avoid the follow on at the start of the final day, Hunter and Matthew Foster put on 96 for the last wicket and then with Hunter taking two wickets for five runs, they bowled out the visitors for 181.
Set 219 to win, Hunter, who finished 100 not out in the first innings, then hit 63 not out, sharing an unbeaten fourth wicket stand of 135 with Coleraine Grammar’s Marcus Poskitt, who scored 62.
Irish Cup quarter-final draw: Waringstown v Pembroke, Strabane v Phoenix, Civil Service North v Clontarf, Merrion v Leinster. National Cup quarter-finals: Knockharley v Limerick, St Johnston v Ballyspallen, Rush v Drummond, Co Kerry v Co Galway. All games on Sunday, July 15