Pakistan games

wicorthered

Full strength squad announced. Very surprised at that, usually county games come first for the county players and there are several games over these dates. Great sign of how far Irish cricket has come.

Fancy us to win one of the ODIs!!

TheDrog

The squad in full is as follows:
William Porterfield (Captain) (Warwickshire),
Alex Cusack (Clontarf),
Trent Johnston (Railway Union),
Nigel Jones (Civil Service North),
Ed Joyce (Sussex),
Niall McDonnell (Strabane),
John Mooney (North County),
Kevin O`Brien (Gloucestershire),
Niall O`Brien (Northants),
Boyd Rankin (Warwickshire),
Paul Stirling (Middlesex),
Albert Van der Merwe (YMCA),
Andrew White (Instonians),
Gary Wilson (Surrey).

Dockrell and Marshall injured, Botha retired

SSK

Great to see a full strength Pakistan team, clearly they take us seriously anyway.

Irish batting line up looks good even without Marshall, all of them have gotten some county runs this year. Our bowling line up looks weak without Dockrell and Botha there. We're still so reliant on TJ to lead the attack.

riffmongous

We have a great chance of getting a win, Pakistans batting is very fragile at the moment. Is Mohammed Yousuf going to be in their squad? He seems in good form at the moment, well at least he looked it in that Warwickshire game on the bad pitch

TheDrog

not good news
from cricketeurope:
Ireland coach Phil Simmons faces an anxious wait over the fitness of wicket-keeper Niall O’Brien ahead of next weekend’s two One-Day Internationals against Pakistan in Belfast, writes Emmet Riordan.
O’Brien took a heavy blow to his left hand from former England seamer Simon Jones in last Friday’s CB40 game against Hampshire, although he played through the pain to score a match-winning 121, his first century in limited-over cricket.
O’Brien missed yesterday’s CB40 victory over Scotland to have physio on the injury and will undergo an X-ray today ahead of their county championship clash against Leicestershire tomorrow.

Cremated

It just puts more pressure on the big players now, Joyce and Porterfield will really need to step up, I do think Wilson showed a lot of class in the World Cup but I wouldn't think his skills with the gloves are as good as Niall's ...

wicorthered

Poynter called up to replace NOB. Huge loss considering the form he was in!

HonalD

Cremated wrote: »

It just puts more pressure on the big players now, Joyce and Porterfield will really need to step up, I do think Wilson showed a lot of class in the World Cup but I wouldn't think his skills with the gloves are as good as Niall's ...

Wilson is a good wicketkeeper - he doesn't get as many plaudits as O'Brien and insn't as chatty but I wouldn't be worried on the keeping side - just that NO'B has been in good nick with the bat.

riffmongous

Very disappointing news for us and for Niall The Pakistani batsman have done well in the current test match too, 277 & 377/6d.

SSK

That's a sickener to lose our best player when he was in such good nick to an injury. Wilson was decent in the WC but has lost his place in the Surrey team and wasn't keeping wicket when he was in so without doubt its a significant blow to our chances.

As was said above, our hopes really rest on the top 3 (Joyce, Porterfield and Stirling) making runs because I don't see us restricting them too well without Dockrell. Joyce in particular needs to put an innings together.

barrera

Are these matches sold out (tickets not available on ticketmaster right now).

Also, are they on TV at all?

TrueDub

barrera wrote: »

Are these matches sold out (tickets not available on ticketmaster right now).

Also, are they on TV at all?

Tickets available on the gate apparently, miles away from a sellout.

And no, there's no TV coverage anywhere.

reb73

The maverick Shahid Afridi is reportedly out of this series due to his father's illness.

Cricinfo Link

barrera

TrueDub wrote: »

Tickets available on the gate apparently, miles away from a sellout.

And no, there's no TV coverage anywhere.

Cheers. Why the hell do they ever have games in Stormont, they never seem to sell well.

KevIRL

boo to rain

Cremated

Joyce is set to open with Stirling and Porterfield comes in at 3, it's 41 overs a side and Pakistan won the toss and have selected to field first,

I imagine Joyce is opening as he is better against spin?, I really hope it's work for us ...

KevIRL

Down to a 38 over game now.

Joyce out early on. But Stirling flying, he hit 18 in the 4th over and 11 off the 5th. Ireland 39-1 after 5 with Stirling on 35 off 17 balls

riffmongous

Stirling is on fire at the moment 39 from 20, great batting considering I expected it to be a pure bowlers wicket

KevIRL

riffmongous wrote: »

Stirling is on fire at the moment 39 from 20, great batting considering I expected it to be a pure bowlers wicket

He's out now 39 off 22 balls

KevIRL

Cusack out now. Ireland 49-3 (7.2)

KevIRL

5 down. Porterfield out. 51-4.

KOB to the wicket to huge cheers

KevIRL

Kev O Brien out. 66-5. fooked

Cremated

This is really quite embarrassing at this stage, I thought we could give them a game ...

KevIRL

White out first ball 66-6 now. Junaid Kahn with 4 wickets and now on a hat trick!

KevIRL

Could be saved by the rain...

Placebo

GOD DAYMMMNN
who is junaid khan !?

KevIRL

Wilson gone now. Ireland 90-7 after 18 ovs

KevIRL

A complete rout. Mooney out. 92-8

KevIRL

All out for 96

riffmongous

l wasn't able to follow the game from the time I made my last post, so when I checked the score a minute ago the last thing I expected to see was a (probable) 10 wicket loss

riffmongous

Only 2000 fans showed up, even allowing for the rain that still has to be disappointing?

Dozen Wicked Words

The turn out for the England Test Match against Sri Lanka has been poor as well. I think the weather will definitely have put any casual fans off going, especially as the start of the day was so bad. 2000 is disappointing but probably still as good as the attendances the West Indies managed to get against Pakistan.

wicorthered

What a super player young Stirling is!! Potentially a better talent than Morgan!! Won't be long I fear before England come knocking:mad:

riffmongous

We're up to 228/6 now, great work from Stirling alright, good comeback after the World Cup.

randomer

Cricket Europe Commentary wrote:

49.6 Junaid Khan to White, FOUR White hits his first ball superbly to fine leg and runs off, probably in disgust that he was pushed down to No 10 in the order. And quite rightly!

After watching Andrew White bat at the CWC, I think he is lucky to be batting at 10. I would have him at number 73...

riffmongous

Great start from Johnston, 1 down after 2 overs, what will we do once he retires?

SD7792

Fabulous stuff from Stirling and Wilson. Don't know why White is still in the team tbh. His bowling is average at best and his batting average is 20. Considering he's been playing minnows most of his career that is pretty poor. Time to bring in some younger players I think.

Also, dare I begin to get a bit excited about the current scoreline?

wicorthered

Rankin injured again, gone off the field huge blow!!

riffmongous

wicorthered wrote: »

Rankin injured again, gone off the field huge blow!!

Real pity

Cremated

Rankin is back on the ground...

riffmongous

Good start from Cusack, without Dockrell someone else really needs to step up today

riffmongous

One run from Rankins comeback over, good to see he's not injured.

TrueDub

Cremated wrote: »

Rankin is back on the ground...

You mean on the field - the ground is the entire stadium.

Sorry, sorry, pedantic umpire rears his head again. Don't get me started on the difference between the pitch and the wicket!

actwithoutwords

Pakistan starting to claw back the required rate now. Need a wicket.

riffmongous

Could you please explain difference between pitch and wicket for me TrueDub? I've heard them used interchangeably so many times, often within the same sentence that I have no idea what the difference is.

144-3 now, we really need a partnership breaker, there was a few games back in the WC where we could have done better if we hadn't let them build that one big partnership that takes the game away from us, and that looks to be happening again today.

Memnoch

Pitch, is the playing surface in the centre of the field of play, on which the batsmen stand at opposite ends and face the bowling. The bowler bowls on this surface. Sometimes, the pitch is also referred to as the wicket, which can be a little confusing for new comers.

Strictly speaking, the Wicket or wickets are the three wooden sticks at either end that the batsmen tries to defend against the bowling. When the batsmen is 'out,' or dismissed by the bowler and has to leave the field of play, this is also referred to as 'losing his wicket.'

So if a team is down 8 wickets for example, that means eight out of their ten batsmen have been already dismissed by the opposition. 'Ten wickets,' ends an innings as you must have a batsmen at each end to keep playing.

Does that clear it up at all?

riffmongous

So phrases such as 'sticky wicket' and the like are incorrect?

Pauleta

This is going to be a tense finale

wicorthered

Akmal has taken the game away us. Associates lack penetrating bowling, Pakistan were happy nudging the ball about and picking up singles knowing they would cut loose in the last 10 overs. Akmals knock shows another big difference, we were well set for the last 10 overs, but Wilson apart no one could get after the bowling. Should really have got 260-270.

KevIRL

Shoulda left Miserable Ul Haq out there.

actwithoutwords

Gah. Disappointing denouement, just not enough wickets to put real pressure on. Creditable performance, particularly after Saturday, but a win would have been big with the upcoming ICC meeting. We just can't afford to be missing our top class players like NO'B and Dockrell.