Ireland take home two

What a delight it was to see the Irish players yesterday do what no other team in this world cup could afford to when they not only had their second win yesterday but also did it with style when they recorded their second successful run chase in excess of 300. First it was in the match against England where they chased down 326 and then yesterday against Netherlands when they successfully chased down 307 needless to be said. But, a little bit of thumbs down to the Irish bowlers for allowing Holland to put up 306 when they failed to win a single encounter.

This is the second time that Netherlands failed to grab even a single victory out of the games that they played. Earlier, they had a similar feat in the 1996 world cup when they lost all five games they played when they faced Pakistan, England, New Zealand, South Africa and UAE. A little bit of effort would have seen Holland register their first win in that tournament against UAE. Though no one expects Holland to win against strong teams like South Africa and India, their performance has to be high against teams like Ireland. After all, Holland have been playing in world cups since 1996 as mentioned.

They have wins against Namibia in the 2003 edition and a win against Scotland in the next edition at the Caribbean. With that apart, Ireland might have just managed to reach the quarter-finals of this world cup with just one more victory with teams like Bangladesh and West Indies out there. When Ireland could have chased down a total of 326 successfully against England, it should not have been a tough thing for the Irish to win against at least Bangladesh though West Indies stand an equal chance. Though Bangladesh were the hosts, they have been under-rated needless to be said.

The match between Ireland and Netherlands was much better than the one between Pakistan and Canada where Canada failed to chase down 184 set by Pakistan. May be, had Ireland been there in the place of Canada may be the Pakistani batsmen would have bee bowled out for even lesser total and may be the Irish might have had another upset there. Very rarely can there be two batsmen from a single team to have notched up two fastest hundreds of this world cup when O'Brien scored it in 50 balls against England and yesterday Paul Stirling scored a 72 ball 101 against Holland.

The best South Africa can do

Well gone are the days when cricket fans used to pity the plight of the South Africans when they used to come so close to winning and all of a sudden lose the plot midway. That was the case in 1992, 1996 and the 1999 world cups but not thereafter. Since 2003 world cup onwards, South Africa have only been just another team and no extraordinary team. And in this world cup as well, they had no reasons to lose to England and in the match against India, it was India's loss and not the Proteas' win. Smith has only been a failure so far.

The South African captain has in most of the game games barring England and West Indies. But, in games against teams like Ireland, South Africa has everything to say. They did everything right in their game against Netherlands and the same can be expected against Bangladesh. They got a world record victory margin of 221 runs against Netherlands who are yet to taste a win in this world cup. Yesterday, their performance against Ireland was splendid only to add to their woes citing their plight against England and India. South Africa are yet to perform in this series though their place in the quarter-finals is rather guaranteed.

Coming to yesterday's game, the total of 272 on the board by South Africa was far below par when expectations reached a team total of 350+ or so. This should not mean that they would have been a better team had they been able to do so. Though bad luck has stopped haunting South Africa in world cups since the 2003 world cup, bad luck seems to have cast its eyes on the South African players when Jean Paul Duminy failed to get the three figure mark when he was caught by the fastest hundred scorer in world cups. Now, Kevin O'Brien was responsible in breaking a hundred.

It was nice to see every South African bowler returning with a wicket barring Alex Cusack who bowled just 2 overs and all ten Irish wickets were down. Why did South Africa lose 7 wickets en-route to their total of 272 batting first? Why only one batsman got a half century when the second best score happened to be the number 7 batsman-Colin Ingram who scored 46? Though Morne Morkel returned as the top bowler with three scalps, he was the most expensive bowler with 33 runs from 5.2 overs at a rate of 6.18 an over. And, no South African bowler bowled his full quota of 10 overs. Why?

Ireland miss it yet again

Well a little bit of brains by the Irish players would have seen them make it to the second round of the world cup for the second consecutive time. A total of just 276 on the board should have not been a tough task for a team who have chased down a mammoth total of 327 against an opposition that was better than the West Indies in all aspects. And, with a player having scored the world cup's fastest hundred, the task should have been just a formality. However, a tough fight was evident when they finished with 231 falling 44 runs short.

If not for the match against Ireland, the West Indies had nothing more to take home. They first lost all their ten wickets against a team that is yet to gain test status. Secondly, if not for the two West Indian players namely the opener Devon Smith and the man of the match Kieron Pollard, no other player really stood to the challenge. Had it not been for these two batsmen, the West Indies total would have been just 74 runs with 12 extras put together. This should have been a chasable total for any team let alone Ireland or any other team.

If this is the fate of the West Indies team against a non-test playing nation in Ireland, one can imagine their fate against England and India against which their next major encounter is due in days to come. They have lost surrendered to the Proteas by 7 wickets in their very first encounter and have since then not faced any major opposition. If Kieron Pollard can be as destructive against the stronger teams, then his inclusion in the list of dangerous batsmen can be justified. Or else, he is no different than some Shahid Afridi who has failed with the bat so far.

On the other hand, even Ireland failed to do what they did against England. This is for the second time that Ireland have disappointed their fans who would have expected them to do the wonder yet again. They first failed in the match against Bangladesh when the asking rate was just above four an over and the target just above 200 runs. They had beaten Bangladesh in the 2007 world cup in the super-eights by 74 runs. This time, one has to wonder whether because Ireland was batting second that they lost. But, if this is the way West Indies' cricket goes about, then the team that faces it in the quarter-finals will have an easy walk.

Ireland have come to play cricket

Well, Ireland might not be the favorites to either make it to the finals or the semi-finals of this world cup let alone winning the same. Nor are they the ones who would make it to the quarter-finals by any chance. But, one thing that is to be accepted by all teams is that all non-test playing nations have come to play cricket be it good or bad. And, in case any team fails to digest this fact the result is well in front of us keeping in mind the match between England and Ireland which Ireland won rather than to say that England lost.

There have been matches between West Indies and Kenya in 1996 world cup, India vs Bangladesh & Pakistan vs Ireland in the 2007 world cup, Sri Lanka vs Kenya in 2003 world cup all of which gives the world a clear indication of not to underestimate their opponents. Likewise, there are some other intelligent players like Herschelle Gibbs who reserves all of his talent to hit six sixes off one over against Holland and some Gary Kirsten who keeps his momentum to fall just 1 run short in making it to the history books for being the highest individual run scorer in ODIs to UAE.

Still, Gary Kirsten holds the record for the highest individual score in world cups with his 188* being 5 runs better than the next best score by Sourav Ganguly. Yesterday, unlike in previous major upsets, it was Ireland who earned a victory against England and not England underestimating them. Ireland at one stage were reeling at 111/5 until Kevin O'Brien took charge as well as the challenge. That was not the result of anybody underestimating them. There was a 161 run 6^th wicket partnership between O'Brien and Alex Cusack when the asking rate was above 8.0 an over and the target 327 runs.

In the process, needless to be said, Kevin O'Brien became the fastest century scorer in the history of world cups overtaking Mathew Hayden's record which came off 66 balls. The record and the partnership reminds me of the 6^th wicket partnership between Kapil Dev and Syed Kirmani in 1983 world cup in that famous match against Zimbabwe where India were reeling at 16/5 at one stage and Kapil Dev played the innings of his life. Still, Kevin O'Brien's was a better one for, it came by an Irish batsman against the makers of cricket. But, England has to once again feel unlucky after they failed 1^st against India and then yesterday against Ireland.

Rashid Latif targets history

Well if at all the present Afghanistan coach Rashid Latif is to be believed, he targets a test status for the team which he is coaching. This would indeed be a history if at all it happens to be true. There have been teams like Kenya and Ireland in recent times and in the past as well who have shown exceptional performance in international cricket considering their standards in international cricket. Kenya have managed a world cup semi final in 2003, something which teams like West Indies, England, New Zealand, Pakistan and South Africa couldn't in that edition. But, still Kenya is not being considered for tests.

Pak must learn from Zimbabwe

Well in the past decade, there have been three major developments in international cricket with the first one being the granting of test status to Bangladesh, for reasons best known to the ICC alone. The second on the list would be the stripping of the Zimbabwe team of its test status in 2006 owing to the political instability in the country though that had hardly got anything to do with the game of cricket. And then would be the harsh decision on Pakistan which is a deserving one as far as Pakistan is concerned. Pakistan has been the last country for any team to tour.

First it all started with most of the teams from across the world taking a back seat when it came to tour Pakistan, that included the likes of New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, England and India (of course). As a matter of fact, even Zimbabwe didn't turn up to tour Pakistan though they had shown interest in traveling to that country with little bit of hesitation. When a country whose political stability itself is a matter of question decides to boycott touring Pakistan, nothing specially needs to be said about Pakistan specially. The only team that bravely decided to continue to tour Pakistan was Sri Lanka.

But, that gave answers to all the questions posed by the five teams mentioned above. At that time, even Sri Lanka was not a safe country to head. But, no team ever decided against touring the island. Despite the ICC dropping Pakistan as one of the hosts for the upcoming world cup in 2011, Sri Lanka's bravery to tour the nation needs to be appreciated whatsoever. At last, Pakistan themselves had to boycott their own nation and go to England and play their home series against Australia and England. The situation in Zimbabwe was hardly any different from that in Pakistan.

With the political turmoil in that African country, that was also a country where touring had to be given another thought. Still, there was no hesitation from teams like Kenya and Afghanistan who went on with plans to tour the nation for the intercontinental cup. Now, the latest we hear is that Ireland has decided to go ahead with its tour to Zimbabwe neglecting all fears of the political instability there. One has to recall England boycotting their pool match against Zimbabwe in the 2003 world cup owing to the same reasons. Now, if at all Ireland and Scotland have decided to tour Zimbabwe, then Pakistan will have to do something with the situation in their country.

Pakistan Makes Full Use of The Advantage

Well the match between Ireland and Pakistan played last night was as expected won by Pakistan, who in the process made it to the semi finals of the ongoing T20 world for the second time, after making it in South Africa last time a couple of years back. However, things are not difficult for any test playing nation when there are teams like Ireland around. For a better picture regarding the caliber of the Pakistan team, one has to consider the matches against stronger teams like Sri Lanka, New Zealand and England. Pakistan lost to these teams barring New Zealand. Both Sri Lanka and England came out better than Pakistan on that day.

Anyway, that is a forgotten issue at the moment. And in the match between Pakistan and Ireland, it was a rather decent game played by the Irish there, for they never gave up their chase like the New Zealand did. In the super eight of the ICC T20, the Irish have displayed a comparitively better performance when compared to New Zealand not only in their match against Pakistan but otherwise also. Being a test playing nation, New Zealand were all out for a partly score of 99 and the Irish managed to go up to 120 with a wicket still in their hand. One need not be reminded that Ireland had defeated Pakistan in the ICC world cup 2007.

All that the New Zealand team could manage was a win against minnows Ireland and Scotland. And most of the odds favor Sri Lanka in their last encounter of the world cup this season. I wish New Zealand recall the thrashing given by Sanath Jayasuriya in the inaugural edition of the same. New Zealand were no match for any test playing nation even then. It was shrude luck that landed New Zealand in the semis. New Zealand entered the semis at the cost of South Africa or in other words, South Africa's loss was New Zealand's gain. It was good to see an Irish batsman score 40.

Had it not been for Ireland, things would have surely been tough for Pakistan and may be that in place of India or Australia, Pakistan would have been eliminated. This could be taken from the game played against strong teams. It was the same luck that helped Pakistan win the 1992 world cup in Australia/New Zealand when at one point of time they were not even the favourites to make it to the semis. And in the semis against New Zealand, it was only after Inzamam stepped in that Pakistan could hope of a final berth. And this time as well, Pakistan have defeated only one test playing nation in New Zealand. The real task for Pakistan is in the semis.