REMEMBERING BANGALORE – 10 YEARS ON SINCE IRELAND SHOCKED ENGLAND
CAN it really be 10 years since Kevin O’Brien scored the fastest century in World Cup history? A whole decade? Surely it’s not that long since John Mooney struck the winning boundary to defeat England and ran off the field screaming, “Best day of my fecking life!”? Yes, it is. March 2, 2011. The night Ireland overhauled 327-8 with five balls to spare to complete the biggest successful chase in World Cup history and the biggest upset – a win that confirmed the stunning victory over Pakistan four years earlier was no fluke.
What a night!
Perhaps it doesn’t seem that long because Ireland’s superstar in Bangalore is still strutting his stuff for the Boys in Green at nearly 37 and, having become only the 14th international batsman to score Test, ODI and T20 centuries, looks good for a couple more seasons at least.
But what of the other heroes? Remarkably, six of them are also still involved with Cricket Ireland. Five are still playing at different levels and Ed Joyce is head coach of the women’s team.
Hard-hitting
Paul Stirling, who kick-started the chase with a typically hard-hitting 32 from 28 balls, was only 20 at the time and has since developed into Ireland’s leading batsman, was acknowledged last week when he was voted Player of the Decade.
Fellow opener William Porterfield, bowled first ball, had already been captain for three years and continued his reign until 2019 when he was replaced in all three formats by Andy Balbirnie. At 36, he plays for the North-West Warriors.
Joyce was Ireland’s best batsman and continued to be so for another six seasons, until he ended his county career with Sussex and moved back to Dublin where he announced his retirement after winning a Test cap against Pakistan.
Niall O’Brien followed suit later in 2018 with his burgeoning new role as a players’ agent taking up too much time, and he has since become a sought-after TV commentator.
When Gary Wilson, now captain of the Northern Knights, was fifth out for three with the score on 111, Joyce and O’Brien were taking their pads off down in the bowels of the stadium and cursing themselves.
“We could have got those on that pitch,” Joyce, who made 32, said. O’Brien, bowled for 29, agreed.
As they sat in contemplation, a roar went up. Then another, shortly followed by a third. “Better get up there and see what’s going on,” O’Brien said.
His brother was in the process of belting six sixes and tucking into the bowlers in more ways than one. Beaten by Jimmy Anderson, he nodded, “Good ball”. “How would you know what’s a good ball?” came the reply. “Well it was better than that one I just hit into the stands!”
Not to be outdone, O’Brien the elder took the battle to England in the players’ area, squaring up to Kevin Pietersen as a feud that started at the previous World Cup boiled over again.
“KP was off the field ‘injured’ but still giving his skipper plenty of advice on bowling changes and fielding positions, so I said, ‘If you know so much why don’t you get out there and help’, and then it all kicked off,” O’Brien said.
Alex Cusack, who scored 47 of the match-turning stand of 162 with O’Brien, retired after the 2015 World Cup and now runs a property management company with his wife, Celine, on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland.
When Cusack was run out, Mooney took up the gauntlet, hitting 33 not out to get his side over line, with another of Ireland’s great warriors Trent Johnston.
Mooney has since opened up about his mental health problems and is back working as an electrician after a spell as fielding coach to Afghanistan following his last international in 2015, while Johnston finished playing for Ireland in 2013 and coached his home state New South Wales before his appointment as head coach of Hong Kong.
Which just leaves George Dockrell and Boyd Rankin who are both probably still relieved they weren’t called on to bat, as one captains Leinster Lightning and the other drives a tractor around the family farm in Tyrone in between appearances for Lisburn and the Warriors.