Ireland beat Bangladesh by 74 runs to register its second victory over a test playing nation. By virtue of this victory, the Irish team finds itself on a new ground in the International Cricket Council (ICC) One Day International championship table. Ireland had earlier beaten Pakistan in the group stage.
An Associate member of the ICC, Ireland is set to be ranked alongside with the top ten test playing nations and Kenya, the only other non-test playing team in the list, as the team had succeeded in fulfilling the requirements set by the ICC.
The rules set by the ICC are as follows:
1. An Associate member must defeat two test playing nations and must have played a minimum of ten One Day Internationals (ODI).
2. An Associate member must defeat one test playing nation and must have a victory record of more than 60 per cent over other Associate members, which include some tough teams like the Netherlands, Scotland, Kenya, Bermuda and Canada, who has ODI status till 2009.
The team’s name will be listed after its last Super Eights match against Sri Lanka. With this, the Irish team will find its name constantly shuffled on the ICC ODI championship table.
Match Summary:
42nd match (Super Eights) of the ICC World Cup, West Indies.
Venue: Kensington Oval, Barbados.
Ireland Captain: David Trent Johnston
Bangladesh Captain: Qazi Habibul Bashar.
Toss won by Ireland
Winning the toss, the Irish Team batted first at the Kensington Oval, on a pitch that had earlier helped the Australian and the English bowlers with extra bounce. But the decision to bat first seemed to have gone into the Irish skipper Trent Johnston’s favor, as the openers put a patient 82 run opening stand for the first wicket, without being bothered by the Bangladeshi bowlers.
By the second drinks break, the score had crawled to 128 for 3. But their slow batting seemed to have worked. With wickets in hand the team accelerated to score 243 runs in the allotted 50 overs, with the last 10 overs accounting to 77 runs which included some quick play from K.J. O’Brien and skipper D.T. Johnston.
With a fighting task ahead of it, the young Bangladeshi team started its batting in an unusual fashion. This was a strange bunch, unlike the agile team which one had noticed, defeating the Indian and the South African full-strength sides. The youngsters gave starts but never stayed for long.
18 year old Tamim Iqbal attacked, but, in patches, as he had no reliable partner on the other end. Shariar Nafees continued with his bad form, the talented Aftab Ahmed faced just 9 deliveries, Saqibul Hasan came and went, out in the most bizarre way one could ever think, when the ball rebounded of the bowlers (the wily Botha’s) hand and Saqib’s bat was still inches above the line at the non-strikers end. Mohammed Ashraful and skipper Habibul Bashar tried a revival, but they never stayed for long and the tail just disappeared.
But credit should also be given to the Irish players, as it was their hard work that gave them this well deserved victory.
The Man of the match was presented to opener William Porterfield for his 85 runs and that should lift the spirit of this young player who is about to play for Gloucestershire, once the World Cup comes to an end.
Via: Cricinfo
Picture: BBC
