You'll never beat the Irish (well, tonight anyway)

[Ronald Binge]

What an amazing first match for Ireland in the Cricket World Cup in Jamaica.

Ireland: 221 for 9
Zimbabwe (an international Test side) 221 all out

Ties just don't happen that often in One Day International Cricket. The logistics of it are sufficently mad for it to have happened only (I think) twice before. Ireland come away with a point, even though the 2,000 Irish fans out there have rightly treated it as a win.

The atmosphere came across on the radio - there was virtually a good humoured riot going on - and yet again, you can't beat the Irish!

[Derek Wheeler]

If there was an award for the first time cricket was discussed on this forum, you'd get it. So just for you, the first ever "cricket report" on the P11 forum.

"The rugby lads will go mad over this."

Cricket goes mad in Jamaica

I NEVER thought I would find myself glued to a TV screen on a Thursday night, transfixed by a cricket match between Ireland and Zimbabwe. The world has truly gone mad.

The ICC World Cup well and truly got going today - at least on the pitch. While Sir Lanka handed out the second-biggest thrashing in World Cup history to Bermuda in Port of Spain, Ireland and Zimbabwe fought out mad finish to a marathon match in Kingston. The only problem was, they did so in front of a near-empty stadium. Maybe the World Cup hasn't caught the imagination just yet.

For those of you who don't follow cricket, or who didn't realise that Ireland played it, there are 16 teams in the West Indies competing for the honour of being crowned the best one-day team in the world. However, there are only nine teams in the world that play Test cricket. It's a bit like organising a party and then suddenly realising you don't have enough guests.

So we have such cricketing nations as Bermuda, Holland, Ireland, Scotland and Canada making up the numbers. And the result is a host of bizarre characters, one-sided matches and - in some of the group stage matches - a standard of cricket that wouldn't get you into a club side.



You'll have seen Dwayne Leverock (pictured above), the 20-stone beef korma loving Bermuda bowler who recently made the back pages after taking a couple of wickets against England in a pre-World Cup warm-up match.

Leverock only took one wicket for Bermuda today as they were well and truly walloped by Sri Lanka, who look a good bet to win the tournament should Australia slip up.

The real drama, though, came at a near-empty Sabina Park as Ireland and Zimbabwe came together. It was the first match of the tournament in which one of the Test nations looked as if they might be beaten by one of the minnows.

Ireland's innings were defined by an unbeaten century from Jeremy Bray, made at such a slow pace that even Geoffrey Boycott might have been telling him to get a move on.

But Zimbabwe didn't help themselves with fielding that veered between eccentric and downright laughable. The highlight came when Irish batsman Dave Langford-Smith hoisted a ball high to square leg, where Zimbabwe fielder Elton Chigga staggered around underneath it like a drunken man, before not only dropping it, but then fumbling over the boundary for four runs.

So slow was Ireland's 50-over innings, that I did wonder at one stage if the match would ever end. Then Zimbabwe's batsmen came flying out of the traps and, after some more nervy batting and comedy fielding, looked set for victory.

They only needed 15 runs from the last six overs - easy, surely. But Zimbabwe then managed a batting collapse that England would have been proud of. When Ireland put the rotund Kevin O'Brien in to bowl with two overs to go, Zimbabwe looked certs to win. Six balls and two wickets later, they needed nine runs from the last over to win, with just one wicket left. Had the cricket world gone mad?

The drama continued to the last ball, as Stuart Matsikenyeri needed just one run to win. He missed the ball, wicketkeeper Niall O'Brien hurled it to the other end and non-striking batsman Ed Rainsford was run out. The match ended as a tie - only the third in World Cup history, as both teams ended with 221 runs. The Ireland fans (complete with false leprechaun beards and green shirts) went mad, and so did the players (who didn't wear false beards).

A match that was a giddy mess of dropped catches, hopeless bowling and dodgy batting had somehow turned out to be the best game of the World Cup so far. How did that happen?

England's World Cup campaign starts against New Zealand tomorrow. It won't be as good as Ireland v Zimbabwe. And I never thought I'd find myself writing that.

[Thomas J Stamp]

Watched it on the telly. Zim were coasting till they lost the sixth wicket, then panic stations. Last over was a hoot altogether, nearly caught their good batsman twice, nearly ran them out once, five god-awfull deliveries from a mediam paced bolwr, lucky stumping on the last ball to tie the game.

And we dropped about five easy catches as well, should have won it. Great ton form Bray as well.

Roll on Saturday.

Lets hope Joyce plays a blinder tomorrow and England lose!!

[packetswitch]

Listened to most of it on dodgy Radio 4 longwave (no satellite TV in TCD, even though our graduates provided a chunk of the team...they're the ones that we didn't steal from the ranks of Aussie backpackers!).

Great game. Nailbiting stuff, as only sports-on-the-radio can be.

[Colm Donoghue]

It's a draw though not a tie, tie's happen in test cricket when time runs out. draws only happen when it's the same score.

I think the ref blew it up at 214 all, musta been from Meath or some Gaa stronghold.
Luckily he wasn't a rugby ref, if the ball had a gone into touch, the result woulda been a bit different.

Saw the online report on the Guardian website, good aul craic.

[packetswitch]

Plus, we can claim a moral victory in that we took ten wickets, while they took nine...

[2Funki4Wheelz]

Morto for all the supporters dressed in cheap Carroll's leprechaun outfits though. Although it was better than the people in the rugby jerseys!

[Thomas J Stamp]

Originally Posted by colmd

It's a draw though not a tie, tie's happen in test cricket when time runs out. draws only happen when it's the same score.

You may want to tell the lads on Sky that so as it was Match Tied on the screens.

[Colm Donoghue]

maybe odi's are different to tests. The guardian covered all bases, match tied, and "its a draw"

I could look it up but then we'd know and waffling about stuff we havn't a clue about is more productive... especially on a Friday.