adminHOBART. – If you need to know how much staying alive at the men’s T20 World Cup means to Ireland, the tears will tell you.
They were dabbed from the cheeks of the sizeable number of Irish fans who made the trip to Hobart, including George Dockrell’s parents, sister and girlfriend, and flowed from the eyes of match-winner Curtis Campher, who scored his highest score in any format of representative cricket and dedicated the innings of 72* from 32 balls to his family.
In the immediate aftermath of completing the chase, Campher revealed that he had received some bad news in the last week and the outpouring of emotion was a result of that. It was also what motivated him when he batted, with the bulk of his runs scored in an unbeaten 119-run stand with Dockrell, which ensured Ireland remained in contention for the Super 12s.
“Curtis’ knock today under that pressure – when you know what’s going to happen if you have to lose the game – was fantastic,” Dockrell said afterwards.
What was going to happen if Ireland had lost a second Group B match? Any possible progression to the Super 12s would have been taken out of their hands. Not only would they have had to beat West Indies in their third game, they would also have had to hope for other results to go their way. By extension, Ireland would have exited from a second successive World Cup in the first round and crashed to a 13th defeat in 20 T20 World Cup matches.
It’s not a record they are proud of. “We’ve spoken about how we’ve wanted to play better at T20 World Cups,” Dockrell said. “In ODI cricket, we’ve had some success over the last while, but in T20s, we have probably underperformed. We’re aware of that as a group.”
And equally aware of who they would have lost to: Scotland, who are also in the running for a Super 12 spot and have already overturned one of the first-round favourites, West Indies.
Much like Zimbabwe in Africa, Ireland are Europe’s “other” Full Member and just as Zimbabwe feel especially chastened when they are bested by Namibia, Ireland do not want to be embarrassed by Scotland [or Nether-lands], perhaps because they know they shouldn’t be.
Of the European teams in the first round, Ireland have the most opportunity and resources. Consider, for example, that between the last T20 World Cup and this one, they have played 22 T20Is, won nine and lost 13, while in the same period, Scotland have played just two and Netherlands seven. But, Ireland’s T20 World Cup record [five wins in 20 appearances] is not as good as Scotland’s [five wins in 17] or Netherlands’ [seven wins in 17], and while some of that is due to them playing bigger teams in earlier editions of the tournament which did not have an opening round, they have also lost to the likes of Oman in 2016 and Namibia in 2021.
Therefore, another defeat to an Associate nation was not an option on Wednesday.
“There was a lot of pressure,” Dockrell acknowledged. “But that’s why you play these games. It’s for these kinds of moments.” – Cricinfo
Mathew Masinge
Online Reporter