Ireland's Triumph : Ahead Of Test Journey
Ireland had been playing cricket as an associate member of ICC for a long time and after 12 years of struggle and pain, finally they've achieved their feat of playing test match cricket, which is unarguably the biggest accomplishment for any cricket playing nation. Whenever they've got opportunities to play against big teams, they've used the most of it. They had their debut ODI against England at Stormont, Belfast in 2006. In that match they've lost against a very decent England side by a small margin of 38 runs. They get motivated a lot and haunt big teams whenever they play in world-cups. They've defeated Pakistan in 2007 world-cup by all-outing Pakistan's long depth batting line-up in just 132 runs (won that match by 3 wickets). They've also defeated England in 2011 world-cup by chasing a mammoth target of 328 runs and in the latest world-cup in 2015, they've defeated West Indies by chasing yet another big total of 304 runs. Unfortunate for Ireland team that after being such cunning team, they're not going to participate in the upcoming 2019 ICC world-cup which is definitely a disgrace for them. To forget this matter of frustration, they've chose a different path. They've got their test status in 2017 and at 11th May, they had their test debut against Pakistan. This is Mashhud Hasan from Frenzyweb360 and today I'm going to talk about Ireland's hope, passion, integrity and expectancy in the most respectful format of Cricket called the Test format.
Ireland is currently ranked 12th in ODI and 17th in T20I. They're the 11th member of test Cricket. Currently William Porterfield is their captain and Graham Ford as their head coach. They have a pretty decent side. They have a high voltage batting line-up of Porterfield, Ed Joyce, Paul Stirling, Andy Balbirnie, Niall O'Brien, Kevin O'Brien, Gary Wilson and many. Their pace bowling line-up includes Boyd Rankin, Tim Murtagh and young guns like Tyrone Kane & Craig Young. Comparably their spin attack is a bit frailed but it's still workable. They have George Dockrell as their front-line spinner and along with him is Andy McBrine, who's pretty consistent with his right arm off-break. I'm going to analyze each of their departments.
Batting department is Ireland's strongest side. They have many hard hitting batsmen as well as some consistent batsmen that can turn into raging wagon in front of top notch bowling line-ups. William Porterfield is the highest run scorer in the ODI history of Ireland. He's also the highest centurion of Ireland in ODI. He has scored 3,692 runs out of 119 matches (117 innings) with an average of 32.38 and scored 11 centuries & 15 fifties. Ireland have Ed Joyce as their most dependable top order batsman. He has experience of playing for England and one of only two batsmen to score centuries for two different nations in ODI format. He has scored 471 runs out of 17 matches with an average of 27.7 (a century and 3 fifties) for England. For Ireland, he scored 2151 runs out of 61 ODI matches with a blistering average of 41.36 (5 centuries and 12 fifties). His innings of 107(142) runs against Australia and 116*(132) against Pakistan are the most memorable ones, even though his highest score is 160*(148) against Afghanistan. His batting style is as similar as Porterfield's. Both of them have classical style of batting, they're mostly effective on scoring runs towards the Square Leg, Third Man and Deep Point. Both are remarkable at playing and executing flicks, hooks and drives with good timing and placement. Ed Joyce is slightly better against spin bowling while Porterfield is better at facing new ball swings. Ed Joyce's plus point is, he has a very rich record in first-class. He has experienced 254 first-class matches and scored 18,414 runs with an average of 48.07 (scored 47 centuries and 92 fifties). This rich statistics and experience is going to be very effective and helpful for Ireland ahead of their test Cricket journey. Ireland also have Paul Stirling as their hard hitting opener. He is a pinch hitter who can hit the ball through anywhere he wants. He's very aggressive against pacers and showed maturity in Asian turf as well. Kevin O'Brien is Ireland's hero of 2011 world-cup. In my opinion Ireland's biggest win in their ODI history is against England at the 2011 world-cup. And Kevin O'Brien was the man to seal victory for Ireland. In that match, Ireland's bowling performance wasn't really impressive which was the reason England was able to throw a massive target of 328 runs. But Ireland's batting department was able to chase it with ferocious performance. Firstly, Paul Stirling and Ed Joyce were building a solid partnership and they were creating the platform for Ireland. Niall O'Brien was striking the ball well but within a short moment, Ireland's score was turned into 110-5 and they were in deep pressure. In that moment, Kevin O'Brien and Alex Cusack were on the crease. Cusack was keeping himself up with the classy way while O'Brien wasn't afraid of taking big risks. Kevin O'Brien usually doesn't use much foot-works but in that match, he executed his foot-work and timing very well. He was able to handle Anderson and Broad's swinging deliveries. He was very aggressive against Graeme Swann and Michael Yardy's spin attack. Leg Glance was O'Brien's productive shot and most of his shots were played towards the Fine Leg and Square Leg. His innings came to an end after he got run out by Tim Bresnan. But his destructive innings of 113 runs (out of 63 balls) had already destroyed England's hope of winning the match. This match describes how strong Ireland's batting line-up is. But it doesn't portray the entire line-up. They also have Niall O'Brien (Kevin O'Brien's elder brother) as their leading wicket-keeper who's very agile and has excellent mobility behind the stump. His batting is also very consistent. He is the big part of many historical wins of Ireland Cricket. He was the man of the match of that Pakistan match in 2007 world-cup, where his 72(107) helped Ireland to reach their target. In 2015 world-cup, he scored 79*(60) against West Indies and was awarded man of the match. Ireland's most recent accomplished star is Andy Balbirnie. He's only 27 years old but already scored 2 centuries in ODI format, including 97 against Zimbabwe and 58 against mighty South Africa, both were scored in world-cup 2015. Gary Wilson is Ireland's big asset as a 2nd wicket keeper and middle-order batsman. He has played 96 matches for Ireland and scored 1909 runs with an average of 24.16 (1 century and 12 fifties). These statistics are good but not good enough to describe Wilson's capabilities as a trust-worthy middle order batsman. And Wilson is very good at staying and adapting himself on the crease. So, I think he's going to be effective ahead of Ireland's test journey. Overall, Ireland has a very good batting line-up and Irish fans are definitely looking forward to their strongest department and expecting to get delivered with big amount of runs.
Now let's talk about Ireland's bowling side. Their relative country England have produced tons of genuine pacers. So it is a matter of surprise that most of the Ireland's fast bowlers are medium pacers and they don't generate enough pace to be called as genuine pacers. They have some good pacers though. Currently Boyd Rankin is the fastest bowler of Ireland. He has been playing for Ireland since 2007. He has played a total of 80 wickets out of 57 ODI matches. He took 70 wickets for Ireland and currently the 3rd highest wicket taker of their ODI history. He took 10 wickets out of 7 matches for England. He has a total of 4 four-wicket hauls. Even though he often starts bowling with the new ball, he doesn't swing the ball much. He also doesn't have the eagerness of pitching the ball for yorkers or lower full-tosses that ten other pacers have. He is very good at delivering fast and hostile bouncers. That's his strongest side. Ireland's highest wicket taker in their ODI history is Kevin O'Brien. He doesn't bowl regularly though but he's a good medium pacer who can deliver every bowls with controlled line and length. He has a total of 111 wickets out of 125 matches (106 innings). Tim Murtagh is also a good medium pacer who's just 1 wicket away from reaching 50 wickets milestone in ODI format. He's the first Irish bowler to take 4 wicket haul in test (took 4 wickets by conceding 45 runs against Pakistan yesterday). They also have tons of high quality medium pacers like Trent Johnston, Alex Cusack, Max Sorensen, John Mooney, Tyrone Kane, Stuart Thompson, Peter Chase and many. Ireland's weakest side is their spin attack which includes George Dockrell, Andy McBrine and Jacob Mulder. Combining all international formats, George Dockrell has a total of 133 wickets out of 123 matches (117 innings) and by taking 52 wickets in T20I, he's the 2nd highest wicket taker of this format among all Irish bowlers. He has a lot of experience in domestic T20 leagues. He has played for English County giant Somerset. Gathering all T20 matches, he took a total of 100 wickets out of 94 matches with an economy of just 6.77 and the best bowling figure of 4/20 against Netherlands. Dockrell's off-break is sort of like Bangladeshi legend Shakib Al Hasan's sliders. Dockrell delivers with slight angle and instead of turn, he mainly focuses on his line, length and flight. Andy McBrine is his long time spin bowling partner. McBrine on the other hand doesn't deliver with any sort of sliding but he gives extra flights which insists the batsmen to hit and miss. He isn't a wicket taking spinner but very good at bowling economical and holding opponent's run rate down. Jacob Mulder is 22 year aged Irish young gun who's a right handed leg-break bowler. He took 5 wickets out of 4 ODI matches and 12 wickets out of 8 T20I matches. He has a good future ahead of him and Ireland is expecting from him to deliver economical performance as a 3rd spinner of the team.
Overall Ireland is a very good team, they have potential in most of their departments. Their batting line-up is extra ordinary. Their bowling attack is also very good. Their front-line pacer Boyd Rankin has experience of playing test for England before. So this is definitely going to help him carry his team up. Ireland's amount of medium pacers is extensive. Their spin attack is under development. They have some dedicating wicket keepers like Niall O'Brien and Gary Wilson. Currently their debut test against Pakistan is going on where they've already reached some personal achievements. Pakistan scored 310 in 1st innings by losing 9 wickets. Tim Murtagh took 4 wicket haul and became the first Irish to reach this feat in test format. Stuart Thompson took 3 wickets and Boyd Rankin took couple of wickets. Ireland didn't perform well in their 1st innings, got all out in just 130 runs (Kevin O'Brien scored 40 and Gary Wilson scored 33*) but after following on, they've scored massive runs. Almost everybody scored good runs. Porterfield, Ed Joyce, Niall O'Brien, Stuart Thompson-all of them played camio innings. Andy Balbirnie didn't bat well though, he scored zero run in both of the innings and became first ever Irish batsman to make a pair. But the man who've brought the spotlight above him is Kevin O'Brien. He became the first Irish batsman to score a century. Currently he's on 118* and after 4th day, Ireland scored 319/7, they're leading by 139 runs with 3 wickets in hand. These small achievements aren't going to up-rise them within a short moment but definitely going to inspire them to go ahead. As I've said before and saying again, they are carrying huge hope and anticipation ahead of their test Cricket journey. One test match can't define a team's future. It's a long term process to be a matured team in test Cricket. Ireland have to perform consistently in every departments to lift up their ranking as a test playing nation.
Ireland is currently ranked 12th in ODI and 17th in T20I. They're the 11th member of test Cricket. Currently William Porterfield is their captain and Graham Ford as their head coach. They have a pretty decent side. They have a high voltage batting line-up of Porterfield, Ed Joyce, Paul Stirling, Andy Balbirnie, Niall O'Brien, Kevin O'Brien, Gary Wilson and many. Their pace bowling line-up includes Boyd Rankin, Tim Murtagh and young guns like Tyrone Kane & Craig Young. Comparably their spin attack is a bit frailed but it's still workable. They have George Dockrell as their front-line spinner and along with him is Andy McBrine, who's pretty consistent with his right arm off-break. I'm going to analyze each of their departments.
Batting department is Ireland's strongest side. They have many hard hitting batsmen as well as some consistent batsmen that can turn into raging wagon in front of top notch bowling line-ups. William Porterfield is the highest run scorer in the ODI history of Ireland. He's also the highest centurion of Ireland in ODI. He has scored 3,692 runs out of 119 matches (117 innings) with an average of 32.38 and scored 11 centuries & 15 fifties. Ireland have Ed Joyce as their most dependable top order batsman. He has experience of playing for England and one of only two batsmen to score centuries for two different nations in ODI format. He has scored 471 runs out of 17 matches with an average of 27.7 (a century and 3 fifties) for England. For Ireland, he scored 2151 runs out of 61 ODI matches with a blistering average of 41.36 (5 centuries and 12 fifties). His innings of 107(142) runs against Australia and 116*(132) against Pakistan are the most memorable ones, even though his highest score is 160*(148) against Afghanistan. His batting style is as similar as Porterfield's. Both of them have classical style of batting, they're mostly effective on scoring runs towards the Square Leg, Third Man and Deep Point. Both are remarkable at playing and executing flicks, hooks and drives with good timing and placement. Ed Joyce is slightly better against spin bowling while Porterfield is better at facing new ball swings. Ed Joyce's plus point is, he has a very rich record in first-class. He has experienced 254 first-class matches and scored 18,414 runs with an average of 48.07 (scored 47 centuries and 92 fifties). This rich statistics and experience is going to be very effective and helpful for Ireland ahead of their test Cricket journey. Ireland also have Paul Stirling as their hard hitting opener. He is a pinch hitter who can hit the ball through anywhere he wants. He's very aggressive against pacers and showed maturity in Asian turf as well. Kevin O'Brien is Ireland's hero of 2011 world-cup. In my opinion Ireland's biggest win in their ODI history is against England at the 2011 world-cup. And Kevin O'Brien was the man to seal victory for Ireland. In that match, Ireland's bowling performance wasn't really impressive which was the reason England was able to throw a massive target of 328 runs. But Ireland's batting department was able to chase it with ferocious performance. Firstly, Paul Stirling and Ed Joyce were building a solid partnership and they were creating the platform for Ireland. Niall O'Brien was striking the ball well but within a short moment, Ireland's score was turned into 110-5 and they were in deep pressure. In that moment, Kevin O'Brien and Alex Cusack were on the crease. Cusack was keeping himself up with the classy way while O'Brien wasn't afraid of taking big risks. Kevin O'Brien usually doesn't use much foot-works but in that match, he executed his foot-work and timing very well. He was able to handle Anderson and Broad's swinging deliveries. He was very aggressive against Graeme Swann and Michael Yardy's spin attack. Leg Glance was O'Brien's productive shot and most of his shots were played towards the Fine Leg and Square Leg. His innings came to an end after he got run out by Tim Bresnan. But his destructive innings of 113 runs (out of 63 balls) had already destroyed England's hope of winning the match. This match describes how strong Ireland's batting line-up is. But it doesn't portray the entire line-up. They also have Niall O'Brien (Kevin O'Brien's elder brother) as their leading wicket-keeper who's very agile and has excellent mobility behind the stump. His batting is also very consistent. He is the big part of many historical wins of Ireland Cricket. He was the man of the match of that Pakistan match in 2007 world-cup, where his 72(107) helped Ireland to reach their target. In 2015 world-cup, he scored 79*(60) against West Indies and was awarded man of the match. Ireland's most recent accomplished star is Andy Balbirnie. He's only 27 years old but already scored 2 centuries in ODI format, including 97 against Zimbabwe and 58 against mighty South Africa, both were scored in world-cup 2015. Gary Wilson is Ireland's big asset as a 2nd wicket keeper and middle-order batsman. He has played 96 matches for Ireland and scored 1909 runs with an average of 24.16 (1 century and 12 fifties). These statistics are good but not good enough to describe Wilson's capabilities as a trust-worthy middle order batsman. And Wilson is very good at staying and adapting himself on the crease. So, I think he's going to be effective ahead of Ireland's test journey. Overall, Ireland has a very good batting line-up and Irish fans are definitely looking forward to their strongest department and expecting to get delivered with big amount of runs.
Now let's talk about Ireland's bowling side. Their relative country England have produced tons of genuine pacers. So it is a matter of surprise that most of the Ireland's fast bowlers are medium pacers and they don't generate enough pace to be called as genuine pacers. They have some good pacers though. Currently Boyd Rankin is the fastest bowler of Ireland. He has been playing for Ireland since 2007. He has played a total of 80 wickets out of 57 ODI matches. He took 70 wickets for Ireland and currently the 3rd highest wicket taker of their ODI history. He took 10 wickets out of 7 matches for England. He has a total of 4 four-wicket hauls. Even though he often starts bowling with the new ball, he doesn't swing the ball much. He also doesn't have the eagerness of pitching the ball for yorkers or lower full-tosses that ten other pacers have. He is very good at delivering fast and hostile bouncers. That's his strongest side. Ireland's highest wicket taker in their ODI history is Kevin O'Brien. He doesn't bowl regularly though but he's a good medium pacer who can deliver every bowls with controlled line and length. He has a total of 111 wickets out of 125 matches (106 innings). Tim Murtagh is also a good medium pacer who's just 1 wicket away from reaching 50 wickets milestone in ODI format. He's the first Irish bowler to take 4 wicket haul in test (took 4 wickets by conceding 45 runs against Pakistan yesterday). They also have tons of high quality medium pacers like Trent Johnston, Alex Cusack, Max Sorensen, John Mooney, Tyrone Kane, Stuart Thompson, Peter Chase and many. Ireland's weakest side is their spin attack which includes George Dockrell, Andy McBrine and Jacob Mulder. Combining all international formats, George Dockrell has a total of 133 wickets out of 123 matches (117 innings) and by taking 52 wickets in T20I, he's the 2nd highest wicket taker of this format among all Irish bowlers. He has a lot of experience in domestic T20 leagues. He has played for English County giant Somerset. Gathering all T20 matches, he took a total of 100 wickets out of 94 matches with an economy of just 6.77 and the best bowling figure of 4/20 against Netherlands. Dockrell's off-break is sort of like Bangladeshi legend Shakib Al Hasan's sliders. Dockrell delivers with slight angle and instead of turn, he mainly focuses on his line, length and flight. Andy McBrine is his long time spin bowling partner. McBrine on the other hand doesn't deliver with any sort of sliding but he gives extra flights which insists the batsmen to hit and miss. He isn't a wicket taking spinner but very good at bowling economical and holding opponent's run rate down. Jacob Mulder is 22 year aged Irish young gun who's a right handed leg-break bowler. He took 5 wickets out of 4 ODI matches and 12 wickets out of 8 T20I matches. He has a good future ahead of him and Ireland is expecting from him to deliver economical performance as a 3rd spinner of the team.
Overall Ireland is a very good team, they have potential in most of their departments. Their batting line-up is extra ordinary. Their bowling attack is also very good. Their front-line pacer Boyd Rankin has experience of playing test for England before. So this is definitely going to help him carry his team up. Ireland's amount of medium pacers is extensive. Their spin attack is under development. They have some dedicating wicket keepers like Niall O'Brien and Gary Wilson. Currently their debut test against Pakistan is going on where they've already reached some personal achievements. Pakistan scored 310 in 1st innings by losing 9 wickets. Tim Murtagh took 4 wicket haul and became the first Irish to reach this feat in test format. Stuart Thompson took 3 wickets and Boyd Rankin took couple of wickets. Ireland didn't perform well in their 1st innings, got all out in just 130 runs (Kevin O'Brien scored 40 and Gary Wilson scored 33*) but after following on, they've scored massive runs. Almost everybody scored good runs. Porterfield, Ed Joyce, Niall O'Brien, Stuart Thompson-all of them played camio innings. Andy Balbirnie didn't bat well though, he scored zero run in both of the innings and became first ever Irish batsman to make a pair. But the man who've brought the spotlight above him is Kevin O'Brien. He became the first Irish batsman to score a century. Currently he's on 118* and after 4th day, Ireland scored 319/7, they're leading by 139 runs with 3 wickets in hand. These small achievements aren't going to up-rise them within a short moment but definitely going to inspire them to go ahead. As I've said before and saying again, they are carrying huge hope and anticipation ahead of their test Cricket journey. One test match can't define a team's future. It's a long term process to be a matured team in test Cricket. Ireland have to perform consistently in every departments to lift up their ranking as a test playing nation.
No comments