Ireland captain won’t attack batsmen

AFTER a dismal showing with the bat from the top order in their second game of the on-going 2023 Men’s Cricket World Cup Qualifiers against Scotland on Wednesday, Ireland skipper Andy Balbirnie feels it was just not their day.

Ireland had the worst start to their game against neighbours Scotland, losing two of their top order batters with just one run on the board — Balbirnie and Paul Stirling fell for golden ducks in succession.

Only four of their batters managed to reach double figures and Balbirnie believes it was not good enough from them, however he will not criticise any of his batters as it was a bad day, which can happen to anyone.

The top order, we can only put up our hands and say that wasn’t good enough from us but the way Curtis (Campher) and George (Dockrell) played showed that if you spend a bit more time there you can get used to the wicket.

“We played a couple of shots that, maybe, didn’t need to be played but I’m not going to sit here and criticise any of our batters, you can have days like that with the bat and unfortunately we did,” said Balbirnie.

Campher and Dockrell saved Ireland from the jaws of humiliation with the bat, helping their side reach a decent total of 286/8 in their 50 overs which is an average winning score at Queens Sports Club.

Campher top scored with his maiden One Day International (ODI) century, finishing on 120 runs from 108 balls while Dockrell chipped in with a half century, falling for 69 runs off 93 balls.

However, another batting masterclass in the second innings of the match, coming from Scotland’s Michael Leask saw Ireland suffer a last ball, one-wicket defeat, making it two losses from two matches.

In order to save their Super Six hopes, Ireland will have to win their last two group games against Sri Lanka and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and hope that other matches also go in their favour.

Balbirnie added that they targeted the first two matches as they thought they would emerge victorious in both but things did not go according to plan.

“We have lost two games so quickly, it’s an uphill task for us now. We have to come and win two games to hopefully go through.

I think the guys probably need a bit of a break and take their minds off. We knew it would be a tough tournament but we also knew we have to start well and clearly, we haven’t done that.

“Certainly, the first two games we targeted because they are teams we thought we should be beating but we didn’t.

The beauty of this tournament is that every team is capable of beating any team and unfortunately we have been on the side of that twice now.

We have a lot of close losses like this, it’s hard to know how to take it,” said Balbirnie.

Ireland sits in position four in Group B with zero points from two matches and are separated by net run rate with bottom placed UAE.

Next up for Ireland is a clash against group favourites Sri Lanka on Sunday at Queens Sports Club. – @brandon_malvin