Six and Out - Some Serious Cricket

The Curse of the Irish?

by SixandOut on March 18th, 2007

There were no prisoners yesterday, as the first weekend of the cricket World Cup 2007 claimed two high profile victims. First up was Pakistan versus Ireland, and on St. Patrick’s day of all days. And although the Irish rugby team narrowly missed out on the Six Nations crown, the Irish cricket team were on top form to embarass one of the teams tipped to win the World Cup. As was the norm for these “giants vs minnows” matches, the giants were batting first, but were humbled by some superb bowling and were bowled out cheaply for just 132. The innings was abysmal from Pakistan and it’s really difficult to guess from where came such a lack of application. Wickets tumbled regularly, yet it can’t really be attributed solely to complacency; Pakistan simply didn’t turn up to this tournament. Inzamama especially looked tired and out of sorts, as Ireland’s batsmen did enough to see them home, even in spite of a howler of an umpiring decision against Botha, caught at short leg off his pad. His bat was nowhere near the ball.

At one point, the players left the field for rain and bad light, which would have been enough to seal the victory had they not come back. Fortunately they did return, giving Ireland the chance the win the game in they style they deserved and finish the embarassment job against Pakistan. In combination with Pakistan’s opening match loss to West Indies, they are as good as out of this competition, forcing them to leave the West Indies with their tail between their legs and the rumour mill already working hard that that will be the end of Bob Woolmer at the helm. Maybe even Inzy.

Ireland, however, are through to the Super Eight, and I can’t believe I picked it and even with the excellent odds, I didn’t put any money on it. More fool me. It’s unlikely they’ll progress beyond there, but then this competition has already shown to be completely open-ended.

But that was merely the start of crazy day, however, as India, arguably even more likely to win the competition than Pakistan, failed to negotiate Bangladesh, losing in equally humiliating circumstances. Again batting first, India managed only 191, where batting first was possibly a mistake, but the the Bangladeshi men dealt with the total for the loss of just 5 wickets. Tamim Iqbal was the man in form who crashed 53 from 51 balls, and it wasn’t a bunch of half-chances and fluke boundaries. India’s bowlers were dispatched to all parts of the ground in a masterclass presentation of one day batting. India looked lost in the field, and even as the required runs got smaller and smaller, the Indian men still had no intensity in their play as they meandered around the field. They had given up and it was just a matter of Bangladesh hitting the runs. I almost expected the bowlers to start dishing it out under arm. India will still expect to progress to the next round, but a loss against Bangladesh will hopefully be a wake up call they sorely need.

This World Cup is rapidly getting interesting.

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