Sri Lanka v Ireland

KevIRL

Great news, 2 ODI's confirmed for the summer Over here

riffmongous

That is great news, those will be tough games to win though!

I am very tempted to have a go at the ECB here again:pac:

baboo800

Be great if we could get a game against India when they tour England in the summer .

Would've gone to game if it was in Belfast

kryogen

Ill be making the trip for one of the Sri Lankan games for sure

booth70

Disappointed that India are not playing in Ireland given that they are in England for a full 3 month tour....would have been great to see my home country play my adopted country!!

With regards to the SL series the interminably long IPL will be on in May so SL may arrive with their second string team:(

HonalD

Whether it is their A team or not, in May, we should be in a position to have a good crack at winning both games.

I'm sure that India would play here if the finances work out.

Jonny_Darcy

Great news - should get to the first game anyway. Have never seen Sri Lanka play in the flesh, would love to see Sangakkara bat

Beasty

Just checking the details - both matches at Clontarf, on Tuesday 6 May and Thursday 8 May

Tickets on sale here

stargazer 68

Got my tickets for 8th - hopefully the sun will come out! If there is no play or little play is there a refund? Can't find the 'refund rules' anywhere

lambayire

I think it's something like a full refund if there are less than 10 overs completed.

And 50% refund for 10.1 to 24.5 overs.

I may well be wrong on this, especially the 50% bit. It might well be all or nothing past 10 overs.

Peadar06

Taken from Cricket Ireland website for last year's match in Malahide: Ticket refund Policy

Ticket refund Policy:
In the event that the match is affected by the weather, 100% refund of the purchase price will be
made in the event that no play is possible / 9.5 over or less are bowled. Ticket holders who have purchased their tickets by credit or debit card will receive a credit for the purchase price within 28 days. Ticket holders who have made cash purchases should apply to the Ticketmaster van on the day of the match for a ticket refund application form and once completed send it along with your match ticket to the address shown

Peter

minitrue

12 days to go and squad has been named, all were involved in the T20WC:

William Porterfield (captain), Alex Cusack, George Dockrell, Ed Joyce, Tim Murtagh, Andrew McBrine, Kevin O'Brien, Niall O'Brien, Andrew Poynter, Max Sorensen, Paul Stirling, Stuart Thompson, Gary Wilson

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/27111555

The games will be streamed live on CI site, youtube and AerTV. Interesting snippets include:
4 hd camera + replays and commentary
"almost" 300,000 watched the Pakistan games

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ireland/content/story/739041.html

suddenly I can't post links as boards just told me I am a new user, sigh

TrueDub

minitrue wrote: »

suddenly I can't post links as boards just told me I am a new user, sigh

New anti-spam and anti-anti-social posting measure. Once you get to 50 posts you'll be fine.

minitrue

You are just encouraging me to post useless crap like this to get my count up
It used to be 25 posts afair. At my current average rate it will only take me about another year to get there

Let's see, how can I make this on topic

Joyce has started on fire in the First Class games. 3 tons already including a daddy 151*, top of the averages (127.66) and 2nd in the runs stakes behind Cook who has 6 innings to Ed's 4.
Porterfield has one FX game and got a 77 top scoring and opening against Jinny Anderson, great to see his return to form wasn't a flash in the pan.
Murtagh going quite well, one Michelle in the bag already from 3 FC innings bowled.
Dockrell's been left out of the 1st XI so far but at least bagged 5 also for the 2nds.
NOB just had the one game so far and nothing exciting but nothing terrible either (32 out of 333 at a decent speed and 10*).
Wilson did fairly well against Cambridge (37 from 218 in the first innings and 53* in a more dominent 2nd) but since then just 1, 0 and 18, but the 18 was out of a fairly low total of 237 and showed a little fight until he showed too much and gave his wicket away softly, also he went in at #4 which suggests he's showing enough form to earn some faith.

Unless I'm being dumb or blind non of the rest have made an appearance in the UK yet this season and the domestic season is yet to begin (at least competitive in Leinster).

Stuart Poynter has had a couple of (friendly?) runs in a T20 and 50 over game but only has 3 stumpings and 6 runs to show for it (but dnb in the 12 a side 50 over game).
Andrew Balbirnie has a few warm-ups under his belt including 2 quick 50s (one not out), but not been seen since the first couple of days in April.

Anyone else across the water playing? Not counting the outcasts, Morgan, Rankin and I guess Hamish Marshall

Bottom line is that while I suspect our batting might be in decent shape, I'd be worried about our bowling. If we are going to finally get that elusive first series win I think we'll have to be back to our very best in the field.

It really is such a shame we get so few chances. If anyone gave a crap about the future of the sport (and the sop to our Test ambitions) we'd be at least playing a FC game against every Test side touring E&W, never mind a T20 or ODI series from those who don't only look at the chequebook (hello India). Given the form E&W have been showing and the form of India away from home, a 3-way India, E&W and Ireland tournament (each play twice and a final) would be bloody interesting in T20 or ODI! Much more so then 5 Tests and 5 ODIs between E&W and India.

HonalD

Are many going?

deise300

come on ireland! Porterfield was won the toss and unsurprisingly decided to bowl. Hope the weather holds up for this, to the Dublin people is it looking sunny up there today?

stargazer 68

deise300 wrote: »

come on ireland! Porterfield was won the toss and unsurprisingly decided to bowl. Hope the weather holds up for this, to the Dublin people is it looking sunny up there today?

Weather is gorgeous here in Clontarf. Unfortunately Im not at the game until Thursday!

deise300

great start, Perera removed first over by Murtagh, caught behind by Kevin O'Brien

deise300

Live streaming on a link on the Cricket Ireland website!

KevIRL

2 down

lambayire

3 down.

Not the cleverest spot to place the toilets so close to the sightscreen.

riffmongous

5 down, this is the critical point where we usually struggle to finish the job

KevIRL

Run out 135-6 in the 39th

lambayire

160-7. Got to get them out for less than 200

Pudsy33

Another down

minitrue

180-8 off 47 now as Murtagh strikes again and ends up with the miserly figures of 10-1-21-2 ... but I guess some people will still say he never does anything for us

riffmongous

They have got very close to 200 though, which I really think will be too much for us

lambayire

219. 30 runs too many.

riffmongous

So from 95-5 to 219-8, it would be disappointing if it wasn't so typical

lambayire

Not that it all really matters. There looks to be a load of rain on the way, judging by the Met Eireann radar.

riffmongous

It's still important though because it seems to happen to us every second game, we just never seem to be able to finish the lower order.

lambayire

or get a decent start from the openers.

The Sri Lankans have the ball moving all over the place.

TrueDub

Ireland making a complete dog's breakfast of this.

HonalD

Not a good performance today sadly, hopefully the weather will keep away on Thursday.

stargazer 68

Rain has completely hampered play today

djimi

Anyone at the ground? Any sign of a let up in the weather?

stargazer 68

djimi wrote: »

Anyone at the ground? Any sign of a let up in the weather?

Seemingly lunch will be 1 o clock and will see after that so it will be at least 2 before play starts if at all. Its peeing it down at the moment.

djimi

Realistically it would need to be what, a 2.30-3.00 start if they were to play it as a T20?

deise300

game abandoned.

lambayire

and then the Sri Lankans played football for 30 minutes afterwards.

I'd have to wonder about the umpires and the state of the outfield.

Glad I didn't grab a ticket for this one.

TrueDub

lambayire wrote: »

and then the Sri Lankans played football for 30 minutes afterwards.

I'd have to wonder about the umpires and the state of the outfield.

Glad I didn't grab a ticket for this one.

Huge difference between a bit of the outfield being fit for a kickabout and having a ground ready to play ODI cricket. My umpiring network tells me there were a lot of concerns over damp patches on the playing pitch, and severely wet old pitches on the square.

lambayire

true but I thought they could have given it another hour. The sun was shining when the game was called off.
I thought they could have gotten in a 20/20 or something of a similar length.

The game had to be started by 4.17 or some time around then?

TrueDub

lambayire wrote: »

true but I thought they could have given it another hour. The sun was shining when the game was called off.
I thought they could have gotten in a 20/20 or something of a similar length.

The game had to be started by 4.17 or some time around then?

No idea on that.

The umps would have been more concerned about player safety - a sodden outfield and (especially) square can be lethal for players running at full pelt.

lambayire

No doubts about the players safety.

I have seen some bad injuries occur on wet outfields.

djimi

lambayire wrote: »

true but I thought they could have given it another hour. The sun was shining when the game was called off.
I thought they could have gotten in a 20/20 or something of a similar length.

The game had to be started by 4.17 or some time around then?

Id say they would have been pushing it for light had they started even a 20 over game at that time. Dont forget Clontarf doesnt have floodlights and it was always likely to get gloomy as the evening wore on. Realistically speaking you need to allow 3.5-4 hours for a T20 game, so if they dont think it will finish in time then there isnt much point in starting one!

lambayire

Light was definitely not an issue.

You could have easily played cricket up to nearly 9pm yesterday.
I was amazed how bright it was last night when I was sticking the bins out.

lambayire

Based on what I saw from Aberdeen yesterday on the TV, the cynic in me would suggest that if the Sky cameras were at Clontarf on Thursday, there would have been some cricket.

Just saying!

Davei141

Missed both games due to exams but my bro got to meet a lot of the team and have a few beers with them after it was called off on Thurs. Couldn't believe it, the sun was beaming when it was called off.

HonalD

lambayire wrote: »

Light was definitely not an issue.

You could have easily played cricket up to nearly 9pm yesterday.
I was amazed how bright it was last night when I was sticking the bins out.

I've been involved in a number of matches and training drills at 8pm and the light would not be sufficient to satisfy the ICC match officials.

HonalD

lambayire wrote: »

Based on what I saw from Aberdeen yesterday on the TV, the cynic in me would suggest that if the Sky cameras were at Clontarf on Thursday, there would have been some cricket.

Just saying!

It was solely a decision by the ICC match officials. I cleared up afterwards but that's life I suppose.....