series vs UAE and Afghanistan

TheDrog

Squad for back to back ODI series in the UAE in January:

Andrew Balbirnie (C), Mark Adair, Curtis Campher, David Delany, Gareth Delany, Josh Little, Andrew McBrine, Barry McCarthy, James McCollum, Kevin O’Brien, Neil Rock, Simi Singh, Paul Stirling, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker, Craig Young

Wilson not travelling as his partner is due to give birth. Dockrell and Rankin both miss out.

Interesting to see Rock is now the third choice keeper.

VillaMad

Tour starts on Friday:

Friday 8th January vs UAE- Abu Dhabi- 1st ODI - 05:30am - Live on Youtube

Sunday 10th January vs UAE- Abu Dhabi- 2nd ODI - 05:30am - Live on Freesports/Youtube

Tuesday 12th January vs UAE - Abu Dhabi - 3rd ODI - 05:30am - Live on Freesports/Youtube

Thursday 14th January vs UAE - Abu Dhabi - 4th ODI - 05:30am - Live on Freesports/Youtube

Thursday 21st January vs Afghanistan - Abu Dhabi - 1st ODI - 05:30am - Live on Youtube

Sunday 24th January vs Afghanistan - Abu Dhabi - 2nd ODI - 05:30am - Live on Youtube

Tuesday 26th January vs Afghanistan - Abu Dhabi - 3rd ODI - 05:30am - Live on Youtube

The Afghanistan fixtures will be part of the World Cup Super League fixtures whereby the top 8 qualify automatically for the next 50 over World Cup.

Mars Bar

https://twitter.com/AbuDhabiCricket/status/1346776117160636421?s=20

Hello from Abu Dhabi
I know nothing about cricket but the stadium is my primary work venue and it's my second home! I also do some casual work for the cricket stadium when I can.

gavinoontheweb

Looking forward to this tour and hopefully the 2021 schedule won't be impacted as much as it was in 2020.

Thoughts on this XI for the first match:

Delany, Stirling, Balbirnie, Tector, KOB, Campher, Tucker (WK), Singh, McBrine, Young, McCarthy.

KevIRL

The 3 games v Afghanistan are huge. If we could come out with a series win it would be massive for our WC chances. Massive ask of course

Great to have the 4 games v UAE to build up as well. Looking forward to getting to watch some cricket.

KevIRL

Opened with stirling and KOB. Ireland just lost tucker, the 4th wicket and are 159/4 after 34. Stirling still in on 70

KevIRL

Campher out, handy little knock tho.208/5

KevIRL

Stirling ton. 221/5

TrueDub

Finished on 269/5, Stirling carrying his bat for 131 n/o.

Live coverage on Facebook for anyone who's interested.

KevIRL

269/5 in the end. Stirling carries his bat to finish on 131 not out, exceptional stuff and really got going with a few 6s in the last few overs as well.

KevIRL

UAE 2 down for 38 runs after 8 overs

riffmongous

Doing fairly well now though, 156/3, only need 114 from 17. Partnership worth over 100 now, really needs to be broken

Richard Hillman

Massive wicket. UAE are getting panicky, playing shots they don't need to

gavinoontheweb

Very controlled chase from the UAE they have been a very solid team for a number of years now, I can remember a similar innings from the 2015 CWC. Ireland not looking overly threatening on this deck and a similar or even the same surface may be used against AFG.

A lot of work to do, good time in the middle from Balbirnie and Stirling are the main positives to take from today.

Richard Hillman

Yeah, maybe not :pac:

Magnificent run chase. Big up to UAE

axe2grind

gavinoontheweb wrote: »

A lot of work to do, good time in the middle from Balbirnie and Stirling are the main positives to take from today.

Add Campher to that, best bowling figures today and some runs.

TrueDub

Sunday's ODI off due to Covid-19 cases within the UAE squad.

KevIRL

TrueDub wrote: »

Sunday's ODI off due to Covid-19 cases within the UAE squad.

Lie in tomorrow so

gavinoontheweb

Unfortunately tomorrow's already rescheduled ODI is cancelled due to more positive cases in the UAE camp. It's up in the air whether the rest of this 4 game series will continue.
Must be really frustrating for the Irish team, hopefully the Afghan series can go ahead uninterrupted but no doubt a clean run at this current series would have been very beneficial. Far from ideal prep.

KevIRL

Nightmare, hard to see any more games being played against UAE now

deise300

Tomorrow's game off now. Hard to see any more games being played in the series. Pretty tough for the lads considering they will be going into the important Afghanistan games with very little practice

VillaMad

Match scheduled for tomorrow now called off as well as the UAE team remains in quarantine.

Seems all they can do is have a few practice sessions now until the Afghanistan series.

KevIRL

Game off tomorrow, they are now hopeful however that a game happens Monday

KevIRL

Ireland played an unofficial warm up game v afghanistan today and lost by 23 runs. None of the top 3 got out of the teens in terms of runs, rector with 42, adair and campher both on 39 the best with the bat.campher 3/31 with the ball

KevIRL

2nd ODI tomorrow confirmed on

Mars Bar

https://twitter.com/AbuDhabiCricket/status/1350820809732976642?s=19

We had a foggy morning at Abu Dhabi Cricket!

KevIRL

Mars Bar wrote: »

https://twitter.com/AbuDhabiCricket/status/1350820809732976642?s=19

We had a foggy morning at Abu Dhabi Cricket!

V foggy start by Ireland anyway. Top 3 batsmen all out for less than 5 runs. Havre recovered a bit but run rate is awful

KevIRL

228/6 in the end. 50s for Campher and Singh, also some useful totals from Tector and Tucker albeit at a slow rate, but at least they made sure we were still batting for the final few overs and got the score to something that the bowlers have a shot at defending.

KevIRL

UAE got off to a solid start but Simi Singh has now taken 3 wickets to leave them 50/3 after 16 overs.

KevIRL

4th wicket for Simi Singh

KevIRL

KevIRL wrote: »

4th wicket for Simi Singh

Now a five for...

VillaMad

Some performance by Simi Singh. I thought 228 was well below-par at halfway.

KevIRL

112 run win in the end after getting UAE all out for 116.

deise300

Great all round performance from Simi. Bowling improved massively once we started taking pace of the ball. Even KOB got in on the action (his first ODI bowl since July 2019!)

Young and McCarthy are still a bit too inconsistent. Campher has been a real find, looks like he has an excellent temperament for batting and keeps things very tight with the ball.

In a way it was good that the top 3 all got out early, gave the youthful middle order plenty of time at the crease.

The squad will be feeling much better about themselves after the display in the first game. Couples of questions ahead of forward to the Afghan series:

Does Adair come back in? If he does I would assume it would be for Young or McCarthy; Singh and Campher will keep their spots and surely we'll need McBrine as the pitches start the slow.

Do we keep Delany at 8? I get his role to provide some power down the order but should he be higher?

Could there be an inclusion for Josh Little?

Looking forward to Thursday!

Mysterypunter

Just saw the result 10-4-10-5 Stands out, good stuff, 228 was a good score after 10/3

KevIRL

The 3 ODI series against Afghanistan starts tomorrow, start times for the three games have been pushed out slightly to 10am local (6am GMT). Very important as World Super League (and by extension WC qualifying) points are at stake. To have any hope of qualifying you would have to think at a minimum a series win is required

BOHtox

10am must be slightly easier for players in terms of waking up and carb loading.

A bit of a disaster for me as I'm on PST so it means I catch 30 fewer mins before I go to bed. I just about caught our entire first innings against UAE in the last ODI. Don't think I'll see half of this as I presume the pace might be a bit slower as Rohan Mustafa won't be powering through overs either

KevIRL

Afghanistan won the toss and are batting. 21/0 after 5 overs

minitrue

118-0 after 21 Debutant Gurbaz dropped on 19 when he gloved a short one, I think Tucker got a bit caught in the hands up or down decision and made the wrong choice. And as I'm about to hit post Ahmadi slog-sweeps one to straight at the Singh on the rope at mid-wicket who just comes in a couple of yards and takes it diving forward. 120-1 off 22 and Stirling on for a bowl now.

minitrue

Rahmat didn't last long, sweeping McBrine around the corner to a perfectly placed McCarhty at slightly backwards square leg on the single. 139-2 off 26 (146-2 off 27)

The pitch is tiny with the ropes miles in (commentary seemed to think 62m-64m all around) ... though nearly all the 6s would have cleared the rope if it was back but it does encourage going for it.

Hodors Appletart

another one

146/3

minitrue

Make that 3 down with Ashgar gone, tiny flick of the glove maybe saved him from lbw but KOB was in at leg "gully" to take the catch! 146-3 off 27.1

Gurbaz still there on 89 (off 95) and now Nabi is in.

minitrue

All 3 so far for McBrine and all 3 caught. There has been quite a bit of turn so who knows what we might be able to chase against Khan & co

KOB having a bowl now, kinda surprised Balbirnie didn't turn to Delany or even himself (McBrine, Singh and Stirling have bowled 18 so far).

Hodors Appletart

4!

minitrue

Make that 4 for McBrine as another one (Nabi) flicks it to KOB at leg-slip (I still want to call it gully but it's somewhere between the 2). 152-4 off 29.3

Hodors Appletart

5!

wow

fivefor

minitrue

Make that 5 for McBrine! Another one (Naib) for KOB at leg-slip/gully! McBrine finishes up his 10 overs with 5-29 and Afghanistan on 161-5 off 32. Gurbaz 94 off 105, 2 off his last 11 balls, nervous 90s on debut.

Oh yeah ... don't believe the https://www.freesports.tv/ site about their player when it says UK only, if you sign up leaving the country as UK (there's no other option) and stick in any old postcode (well I put in something that looks like an eircode) it does work for this here in the Republic (well for me anyway). With CI saying it's the way to watch I'm sure it's just their site is braindead and this is not "dodgy".

Hodors Appletart

yeah I'm watching away on the Freesports website, working fine

minitrue

100 for Gurbaz off 115 having brought up the first 50 in 38 balls! 168-5 off 35 and drinks

Hodors Appletart

6!

minitrue

Nearly another as Najib skies at attempt at a straight drive but McCarthy can't quite get there (or maybe couldn't judge it). Meanwhile Gurbaz is back to blasting some 6s when he already had the most on debut! He's on 9*6s now out of his 127 (off 126) and boom, caught on the mid-wicket rope by Singh off Delany from a long-hop! 2nd highest ever score on ODI debut behind Desmond Hayes (148)! 198-6 off 38