Ireland fly out of traps but fade badly in defeat
EVEN a record opening stand of 115 between Paul Stirling and Kevin O’Brien was not enough to prevent Ireland falling to defeat by Scotland in their second game of the Twenty20 quadrangular tournament in Oman.
In a ridiculous lopsided innings, Ireland scored just 27 runs in overs 12-17, so instead of careering past 200, they had to be satisfied with 180.
When the Scots replied with a century opening stand of their own in just 8.1 overs, they were able to coast to a six-wicket win with nine balls to spare.
One victory — against Oman, the weakest of the four teams — was never going to give an Ireland side starved of success in T20 cricket in recent years the confidence to strut their stuff in the next game and, sure enough, the middle order lost their way after O’Brien’s dismissal and it needed Shane Getkate and George Dockrell to hit 41 runs from the last three overs to give the bowlers a chance.
It is probably no coincidence that Getkate has been immune from Ireland’s run of defeats in the shortest format and consequently has been a breath of fresh air in his first two games. He scored 16 from nine balls yesterday and followed up with his first two wickets.
He was given only two overs by Stirling, however, despite conceding just two runs and taking a wicket in his second over.
The captain’s explanation for taking him out of the attack was that: “Boyd (Rankin) is our strike bowler, we needed to take wickets, they needed only six an over from the last six. Shane has bowled excellently so the batsmen would just have knocked him around for five or six. I was hoping to get them caught at deep square or deep point.”
It didn’t work as Rankin’s over disappeared for 13 — bringing his runs conceded to 39 off his four overs — and a six off Peter Chase (1-40) by Craig Wallace in the penultimate over finished the match.
It was a day for taking pace off the ball, rather than the faster bowlers banging it into the pitch, so it was also surprising that Kevin O’Brien did not get a bowl, although Josh Little, in only his sixth international, came back well after conceding 25 in his first two overs in the powerplay to finish with 0-33.
By that stage, however, the Scots were in cruise control and even the loss of three wickets in successive overs, including captain Kyle Coetzer for 74, scarcely interrupted their progress.
In Stirling and O’Brien, Ireland have finally found an opening partnership for opposition bowling attacks to be fearful of. The captain completed his third half century of the tour but, after hitting 33 from his first 18 balls, he hit only one more boundary, content
Total (7 wkts, 20 overs) to give the strike to O’Brien who was finally caught at long-off in the 12th over, having hit his highest T20 score for Ireland.
But if Ireland are to force a three-way tie at the top after tomorrow’s final round, they will have to improve in all departments against Netherlands, who have won their first two games. Scores: Oman 166-4 (20 overs, Jatinder Singh 63, Khurram Nawaz 58) Netherlands 167-2 (18.5 overs, B Cooper 50 not out, T Visee 44, S Myburgh 34, R ten Doeschate 32 not out). Netherlands won by eight wickets.