Cricket: Ireland beat Canada by 5 wickets, reach ICC WCL Division One final
Ireland continues their winning streak in the ICC World Cricket League Division One. They beat Canada convincingly by 5 wickets and with more than 10-overs to spare at the VRA ground at Amstelveen.
On a bowler friendly track, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ireland-c751 hardly broke a sweat in chasing down the target, losing only 5 wickets.
Canada won the toss and chose to bat. A surprising decision considering the overcast conditions and the Amstelveen pitch had been offering assistance to bowlers throughout the tournament.
Ireland did not take long to trouble the Canadian batsmen. The 2nd ball of the innings saw Patel knocked over by O’Brien on a ball that cut back viciously. Patel did not manage to score any runs.
Three overs later with just 6 on the board Cheema’s furniture was also disturbed as Johnston got through his defence. Cheema scored just 6 runs with one four from 9 balls.Barnett and Kumar finally put on a partnership for the 3rd wicket. The ball was moving all over the place so the batsmen had no option but to ride out the new ball. The pair hardly played any big shots and was content on saving wickets. Barnett and Kumar scored at barely over 3 runs per over. The partnership was finally broken when Barnett was caught by O’Brien off White’s bowling. Barnett scored 26 hard fought runs from 60 balls with just 2 fours.
Kumar fell soon after, he scored 38 runs from 75 balls with 2 boundaries, and he was bowled by Dockrell. Bagai and Surkari then put up a stand of 21 runs. Bagai was sent back after scoring 21 runs from 41 balls with no boundaries.
Next man in, Hansra did not last long and was caught and bowled by Dockrell for just 3 runs from 5 balls. Canada was struggling to even play out the full quota of overs, and finally when Surkari was bowled over by White after scoring 20 from 56 balls, the tail was exposed.There were no major contributions from the lower order batsmen, and Canada ended at 154 for 9 in the allotted 50 overs.
Considering Ireland’s form and batting order it was never going to be a testing target for them. Stirling and Balbirine put on a solid opening stand, of 50 runs scoring at 5 runs per over. Canada did not make good use of the conditions and were unable to get the early breakthroughs that they desperately needed.
Balbirine was dismissed after scoring 17 runs from 31 balls with 1 boundary. Poynter at number 3 failed to open his account and was caught in front of stumps by Desai. Soon after, Stirling was also dismissed. The man coming in, McCann did not find it easy to get going. The Canadian spinners got a hold of Irish batsmen for a brief period, and McCann could not even get singles away. He was eventually sent back after scoring just 6 runs from 35 balls, out LBW off the bowling of
Patel.
While Kevin O Brian at the other end stood strong and took charge of the innings, another quick wicket fell. White was dismissed for naught. O’Briean and Mooney used their heads and put on a sensible partnership to guide the team home in the 39th over. O’Brien was not out on 43, while Moony was also unbeaten on 44 runs as Ireland won by 5 wickets. Kevin O’Brien was named man of the match.
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