Joyce hopes team isn’t bowled over by Lord’s challenge
ED JOYCE is hoping to lead from the front as Ireland attempt to make up for Friday’s horrific firstever one-day international in England with a much-improved performance at Lord’s today.
The headlines made for uncomfortable reading yesterday morning after Ireland slumped from 81 for two to 126 all out.
‘Lord’s is huge occasion and while we are looking forward to it and are all excited, there is that little bit of trepidation and we have to get rid of that fear factor and enjoy ourselves,’ said Ireland’s senior player.
‘I’m always nervous, that never goes away and yesterday I was super nervous before the game, just so desperate for the team to do well. That’s a silly way of looking at it, but I’m in pretty good nick and hopefully that big score is just around the corner.
‘I didn’t have time to practise before going to India for the Afghanistan series (in March, when his top score was 55) but physically I feel much better now and I’m desperate to get runs.
‘We’ve been getting 20s and 30 at the top of the order, which isn’t good enough and have been relying on the middle order to drag it back – and they haven’t been able to do that.’
Their nemesis in India was leg spinner Rashid Khan who took 33 wickets across the nine matches and on Friday it was Adil Rashid, England’s best exponent of the art, who ripped through the middle order. ‘We are trying to fix what’s going wrong and we spoke a lot about Adil Rashid,’ admitted Joyce. ‘Many of us have played a lot against him in county cricket, he doesn’t turn his leg spinners but he has a good googly and a slider which goes across the batsman.
‘We had spoken about that, but it looked like we hadn’t and having faced Rashid Khan in the winter we would have expected to deal with him better, especially in nonturning conditions.’
Malahide’s Peter Chase was the big positive on Friday – taking all three wickets before England completed victory in just 20 overs – and Joyce has identified him as a big player for Ireland.
‘He was the one bright spot in India and although his figures didn’t suggest that, he was consistent on wickets which didn’t really suit him. But yesterday, he came in hard, bowled a brilliant first over and fully deserved the three wickets,’ Joyce added.
Ireland have one injury doubt today with Niall O’Brien nursing a sore finger and Joyce’s Merrion team-mate John Anderson was flown over yesterday as cover.