Irish Cricket 2023

Mysterypunter

100/6 end of a good partnership, Campher out to a reflex catch

Furze99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120490153#Comment_120490153

Have Commins & Moor been long around the Irish setup? I think Moor has been here a couple of years?

But Commins - what's going on, why is he selected to be an opening bat? Four innings in these two tests and I think he's averaged 6.... 6 balls with a total score of 6 runs. Whatever about 6 runs, to only average 6 balls as an opening bat is really very poor stuff. Why's he there? Where is the team coach, here to give direction we'd hope.

Balbirnie has failed miserably and McCollum just a tad better.

Tector & Campher here have played well over half the overs of this disaster of an innings, though latter just gone to a great catch - at least he managed 70+ balls. If they can do it, why not the others?

We went into match with 3+ spinners and looked fairly toothless bowling. Suddenly when Sri Lanka bowl, the ball starts turning sharply.

Always going to be a tough test match, but it's disappointing that the gap is so large. People talk about fine margins in sport but let's be honest, that ain't the case here.

wicorthered

After spending a couple of hours together, Harry just missed Curtis too much, so had to head as quickly as possible back to the pavilion to see him.

Mysterypunter

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120490519#Comment_120490519

Commins is South African, his father played 3 tests for them, don't know much else about him, but he has a poor technique and imagine him facing Anderson or Boult, think Ireland were hoping to make him an opener at a higher level, but scoring a few for Munster Reds in the interpros doesn't mean a lot, loads of southern african players on kolpak or Dutch passports who played in England before brexit, say he came here as a last resort. Moor played for Zimbabwe but seems to have regressed, he's here a few years, probably to do with residency rules. Neither of them look any good to be honest, the rugby team had a similar profile, with loads of players born overseas, but at least they raised the standard of the team. Murdered in this by an innings & 280, 45 was the highest individual score in 2 innings, and thankfully they weren't playing the good Sri Lankan side of about 10-15 years ago, or they would have conceded 1000, and been skittled twice by Muralitharan.

wicorthered

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120490519#Comment_120490519

Commins has been one of the better domestic batters in the last couple of years, particularly in 2021, he had injury issues last year. He is a good player but he has no experience whatsoever of this level of cricket. He's been thrown to the Wolves. He got a snorter first ball in the first innings, better batsmen than him wouldn't have been able to play that. Realistically though he's not ready for international cricket and Stirling should slot into his place. He would've really benefited from being part of an A team set up, if CI had an any ambition to make Ireland competitive.

Moor was first around the set up 10/12 years ago. He played club cricket in the North with ambitions of qualifying for Ireland. Then seemingly out of nowhere he returned to Zimbabwe and played with mixed results for them. He then lost his place/fell out with the selectors and returned to Ireland. He re-qualified for us. He has been one of the better interpros players, he got one really great hundred last season, that with his test experience made him a no brainer for these games. I know he scores are scratchy but is still probably better than those waiting in the wings.

McCollum is what he is, he's not spectacular but he is probably the best opening batsman available. He has a good technique and defense and I'd like to see him get a good run in the ODI team. He's another that would benefit from more competitive cricket.

I think Balbirnie is a good batsman but a really poor captain and the captaincy affects his game. I'd take the captaincy off him and let him focus on being the number three.

Tector is a special batsman. If Ireland play enough games he will score plenty of 100s. I'd make him the test and ODI captain.

Mysterypunter

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120490871#Comment_120490871

Agree with a lot of that except Tector for captaincy, may well be detrimental to his batting which is really classy, has enough to do to carry the batting lineup

Furze99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120490871#Comment_120490871

Point taken re Commins and 1st innings ball here - that's fair enough and happens. Note though his time batting in Bangladesh was very short too - so failed over 4 trips to the wicket. Agree re McCollum as well enough selected there. Something has to be done to stop this repeated loss of quick wickets at start of innings. If we can do that at all in the second test and bat longer, it'd be a good result.

wicorthered

Yeah it would be a risk, but I think it brings the best out of some players. I think he'd be like that. More importantly he'd offer leadership, something Balbirnie doesn't offer. Hard to be inspired by a captain that fails more often than not. I think he Tector could inspire others to increase their level.

Worth a shot I reckon

Mysterypunter

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120491013#Comment_120491013

Could be, didn't do Root or Williamson any harm and you make a convincing argument in fairness

Strumms

We lose by an innings and 280 runs.

not a single half century scored over two innings by any of our batsmen on an absolute docile road of a pitch..scores of 143 & 168. Pathetic.

thats after a mammoth total by Sri Lanka…591/6d ! ! ! …..

really no dressing it up as a ‘learning curve’ or any other excuse that we’ve seen and become accustomed to from some corners..

…

Only two scores of 40 plus …. over the two innings…

four centurions in the SL team….yet nobody in an Irish shirt scored a single 50 over the two innings.

I’d jettison Balbernie as captain. He’s no example on the field or in front of a microphone.

riffmongous

Embarrassing stuff, we were stuck with Porterfield for years and now it looks like it will be the same with Balbirnie

For some balance and perspective though it took Bangladesh 35 games and 5 years to record their first win (against Zimbabwe), and in total they only managed to win around 10% of their games, most them against Zimbabwe and West Indies, so there's still hope for us. Bangladesh is a cricketing country though, so you would worry for how long we can sustain a team without any results.

Mysterypunter

Some of the team visited an orphanage today, some of the orphans might give them an idea of how to perform a bit better, reminds me of the old joke about a team visiting places during a tour, and the press being in attendance. It really was an eye opener, to see their poor faces devoid of hope, Said Ranjan aged 10.

Strumms

ok,we know that Ireland are not capable of winning, but for fùcks sake can we at least put in a performance that is competitive ? Last test we didn’t even get near scoring 200 in either innings….. 143 & 168, on a pitch with no real demons. Some of the dismissals were like something from a fuçking carry on film. Carry on back up to the pavilion.

of the 22 batting innings in the first test…..Only 9 innings in double figures, less then half… 40% actually…40% converted to double figures.

whatever about a couple of batsmen stepping up and scoring the odd century… Not one of our batsman scored a 50 over their two innings.

only one batsman in each innings scored above 40.

given that clear talent deficit…. Ireland can’t win.

that said maybe Sri Lanka can’t either as the forecast for the majority of the week is for rain and thunderstorms . I’d genuinely prefer if we’d get the game in and get smashed into the ground again…. Otherwise you’ll just have Balbernie… “ well, the first test we were err, just finding our feet, acclimatising to conditions, one or two things went against us errr but we’ve learned from the experience and it will stand us in good stead…if we got the second game in, who knows” …be the usual buckets of spoof from him.

id love if he just came out… “ yeah, we’ve not been good enough, we aspire to be at least competitive, that hasn’t happened out here, Sri Lanka are a good side but we realise we need our skills and management of the game to be better and that’s the focus. “ Nobody thrown under the bus but not taking the piss out of genuine Irish cricket supporters…who can see with their own eyes what’s not right.

I personally think that international cricketers don’t learn from an innings where they bowl days worth of overs full of leg stump half volleys, full tosses, gimmie bouncers.. Sri Lanka hit us for 67 boundaries in their one batting innings and at one stage were 345/2…

Mysterypunter

Won the toss, and batting first

Mysterypunter

Paul Stirling, James McCollum, Andrew Balbirnie (c), Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker (wk), PJ Moor, Curtis Campher, Graham Hume, Andy McBrine, Matthew Humphreys, Ben White. There's the team.

Mysterypunter

15/1 so far Moor out for 5

Mysterypunter

43/1, doing ok

Mysterypunter

Jayasuriya gets Mcollum for 10 in his first over, 47/2, Balbernie has a start 30*

Mysterypunter

106/3 at lunch, Balbirnie 57*, Tector out for 18, bad shot, Stirling with a busy start, 14* hit his 3rd ball for 6. Decent session, lots more needed

KevIRL

185/3 now

Mysterypunter

199/3 at tea, 110 for the 4th wicket so far, Balbirnie 90* Stirling 74*, excellent batting

Mysterypunter

Stirling retired with cramps, and also took a blow in the previous over, 204/3, Campher in with Balbirnie, hopefully Stirling can make it back later

Mysterypunter

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120514297#Comment_120514297

Tucker in actually

Mysterypunter

Balbirnie out for 95, pity 232/4, deserved a ton

Furze99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120514447#Comment_120514447

Yep, a good effort from Balbirnie today. The Nervous Nineties got him maybe.

Be good to bat out the day and get past 300 I think.

Mysterypunter

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120514486#Comment_120514486

Hopefully, and also Stirling may recover overnight, so still a chance to post a competitive total

Mysterypunter

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120514486#Comment_120514486

Great call, closed on 319/4, way beyond expectations, patience and skill today, and a lot better application, well played Ireland

Furze99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120514828#Comment_120514828

If we can get through to lunch tomorrow and a bit after, it'd be great. Wear down the Sri Lankan top order in the field and see if we can get a couple of cheap wickets when they bat.

Mysterypunter

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120514860#Comment_120514860

Would turn the tables ok, scoreboard pressure can be a funny thing, keep batting and see how far they can go, also may have Stirling on the go again, so it was important to not lose any more before the close, they did that, and accelerated towards the end, 55 off the last 10 overs today, set up nicely

wicorthered

Now that was proper test match batting. They showed great patience, put away the bad balls and built partnerships. Brilliant stuff