Cricket On The Emerald Isle

[KingCostly]

(2020-21) Series 3 - New Zealand in Ireland

1st ODI (Of 3)

Team: J Shaw, A Balbirnie (C), J McCollum,
T Ruttles, W McClintock, N Greenwood (K), K O'Brien,
A McBrine, S Thompson, G Dockrell, B McCarthy.
Unused: J Tector, M Gilmour, S Singh, J Kendall.

Am I watching the same Ireland team that played against Bangladesh?! We bowled magnificently, really holding New Zealand and their big hitters back. They tried to accelerate the pace but we took some wickets and needed just 208 to win. In the end, it was an extremely comfortable start to the series and a morale-boosting win.

2nd ODI (Of 3)

Team: J Shaw, A Balbirnie (C), J McCollum,
T Ruttles, W McClintock, N Greenwood (K), K O'Brien,
A McBrine, S Thompson, G Dockrell, B McCarthy.
Unused: J Tector, M Gilmour, S Singh, J Kendall.

Another really good performance with the ball, especially from the seamers, as we restricted New Zealand to 240. As you can see from our brief scorecard, Will McClintock accounted for almost half of our runs with his 112. We lost too many wickets in the middle overs and were left hanging on a bit at the end. We needed 9 off the last over with just one wicket left. That became five off one and thankfully Barry McCarthy hit a boundary to grab us a tie!

3rd ODI (Of 3)

Team: J Shaw, A Balbirnie (C), J McCollum,
T Ruttles, W McClintock, N Greenwood (K), K O'Brien,
A McBrine, S Thompson, G Dockrell, B McCarthy.
Unused: J Tector, M Gilmour, S Singh, J Kendall.

Another thrilling game! Tom Ruttles finally showed his best again in an Ireland shirt and the ever reliable Kevin O'Brien hit some really important late inning runs before he ran out of partners. It was an interesting chase from New Zealand - they were always just slightly behind the required rate and we took enough wickets to keep them honest.

They needed just five off the last over but Barry McCarthy bowled a great one. It ended up with New Zealand needing a single off the final ball for victory. Colin de Grandhomme smacked the ball to mid on, they tried to scamper through but the throw to the stumps beat him and we snatched another tie! It's not very often you win a three match one day series 1-0!

[KingCostly]

(2020-21) Series 3 - New Zealand in Ireland (Continued)

1st T20I (Of 3)

Team: J Tector, A Balbirnie (C), J McCollum,
W McClintock, N Greenwood (K), S Poynter, K O'Brien,
A McBrine, G Dockrell, B McCarthy, J Kendall.
Unused: J Shannon, S Thompson, B Rankin, B Gamble.

Could the T20 series against New Zealand match the drama of the ODI one? In a word, no! They batted quite well in the first game and set us 159 to win - a total we never looked like achieving.

2nd T20I (Of 3)

Team: J Tector, A Balbirnie (C), J McCollum,
W McClintock, N Greenwood (K), S Poynter, K O'Brien,
A McBrine, G Dockrell, B McCarthy, J Kendall.
Unused: J Shannon, S Thompson, B Rankin, B Gamble.

The top order failed again in game two and we were reliant on Stuart Poynter and Kevin O'Brien getting us to a decent score. Unfortunately the bowlers couldn't recreate their recent ODI form and we lost with a whimper.

3rd T20I (Of 3)

Team: J Tector, A Balbirnie (C), J McCollum,
W McClintock, N Greenwood (K), S Poynter, K O'Brien,
A McBrine, G Dockrell, B Rankin, B Gamble.
Unused: J Shannon, S Thompson, B McCarthy, J Kendall.

Another failure with bat and ball. We managed to take a couple of early wickets but New Zealand never slowed down and set us a mammoth 183. There was no chance of us getting that, especially after losing two wickets in the first over, and we lost the series 3-0.

[KingCostly]

(2020-21) Series 4 - Afghanistan in Ireland

Squad: J Tector, A Balbirnie (C), T Ruttles,
J Shannon, J McCollum, W McClintock, N Greenwood (K),
S Poynter, K O'Brien, S Thompson, G Dockrell,
B McCarthy, J Kendall, J Mulder, T Kane.

1st T20I (Of 3)

2nd T20I (Of 3)

3rd T20I (Of 3)

I normally write a few notes about every game but there wasn't much point for this series - every game was pretty much the same! When Afghanistan are in this mood on this game, they're pretty much unbeatable when it comes to T20. Every batsman is super aggressive and their spinners just rip through you.

We batted quite well in all three games in fairness. Totals of 146, 166 and 159 are all respectable but they're below par when playing Afghanistan. I know they're good in real life but they do seem a tad overpowered in this game. It doesn't help that I'm not very good at T20 on this year's version - especially on the bowling side.

[KingCostly]

(2020-21) Series 5 - Pakistan in Ireland

1st T20I (Of 2)

Team: P Stirling, T Ruttles, A Balbirnie,
W McClintock, N Greenwood (K), K O'Brien, J McCollum,
A McBrine, S Thompson, J Kendall, B McCarthy.
Unusued: J Tector, S Poynter, G Dockrell, B Rankin.

This was a big series for us after six T20 defeats in a row. We bowled reasonably well but the decision to drop Dockrell for an extra seamer didn't go quite as planned. We had an average start to our chase but Will McClintock and Neil Greenwood both played brilliantly and we won with a couple of balls to spare.

2nd T20I (Of 2)

Team: P Stirling, T Ruttles, A Balbirnie,
W McClintock, N Greenwood (K), K O'Brien, J McCollum,
A McBrine, G Dockrell, B McCarthy, B Rankin.
Unusued: J Tector, S Poynter, J Kendall, S Thompson.

Paul Stirling seems to be back to his best and he really anchored the innings for us. Greenwood and, as always, Kevin O'Brien added some important late runs to push us to our highest ever total in T20. I tried some custom fields out but they didn't have too much success - I think I was being a bit too defensive to start with. Luckily our bowlers managed to take regular wickets and with such a big total to chase, Pakistan finally crumbled and we finished with a 2-0 series win!

[KingCostly]

(2020-21) Series 6 - Ireland in England

1st ODI (Of 3)

Team: P Stirling, J Shannon, N Smith,
A Balbirnie (C), T Ruttles, N Greenwood (K), K O'Brien,
A McBrine, S Getkate, G Dockrell, B McCarthy.
Unusued: W Porterfield, W McClintock, S Poynter, B Rankin.

Debutant Nick Smith came in, he's an all-rounder and gave me another option but he and the other bowlers struggled. They gave us just too big a target to chase and we fell to a heavy defeat.

2nd ODI (Of 3)

Team: P Stirling, W Porterfield, A Balbirnie (C),
T Ruttles, W McClintock, N Greenwood (K), K O'Brien,
A McBrine, S Getkate, G Dockrell, B McCarthy.
Unusued: J Shannon, N Smith, S Poynter, B Rankin.

We went with more experience at the top of the order and it worked out. We batted really well to set England 300 but they started off well. They ended up needing eight off the last two overs but Andy McBrine bowled fantastically in the penultimate over, taking a two-wicket maiden to win it!

3rd ODI (Of 3)

Team: P Stirling, W Porterfield, A Balbirnie (C),
T Ruttles, W McClintock, N Greenwood (K), K O'Brien,
A McBrine, S Getkate, G Dockrell, B McCarthy.
Unusued: J Shannon, N Smith, S Poynter, B Rankin.

We had a terrible start, losing both Stirling and Porterfield for cheap. Balbirnie and Ruttles steadied the ship and at one stage we looked set for 275 but a collapse saw us get 248. We grabbed some early wickets but I always felt we were 30+ runs short and that proved to be the case.

[KingCostly]

(2020-21) T20 World Cup in Australia

Squad: P Stirling, J Tector, A Balbirnie (C),
T Ruttles, W McClintock, N Greenwood (K), S Poynter,
A McBrine, S Singh, S Thompson, S Getkate, G Dockrell,
J Mulder, B McCarthy, J Kendall.

1st Group Game

Unfortunately we had Afghanistan in our group which meant our chances of getting through to the Super 10 were pretty much nil. We struggled to a half decent score of 155 but that's light work for the Afghans and they duly knocked it off with disdain.

2nd Group Game

With us pretty much out of the competition, we could play with a bit of freedom and poor Bermuda were on the end of it. Jack Tector scored our first T20 century since I took charge whilst Tom Ruttles fell just a run short. Our bowling was poor and credit to Bermuda, they almost got 200 themselves!

3rd Group Game

Oh dear, a very poor performance. Our top order crumbled and the scoring rate was atrocious as we looked to avoid getting bowled out. Our bowlers, as always, were very mediocre and we slumped to a pretty embarrassing defeat to end our involvement in the tournament.