Irish Cricket 2023

A draw is the best we can hope for but I fear an innings defeat now.

Jeez that scorecard makes for tough reading. I wonder why Stirling hasn’t done a couple overs of off spin at all. Realistically it wouldn’t have made much difference, but you never know. And it would at least give the others a brief rest.

Can't understand why they haven't declared already. The longer they bat, the more chance we have of fighting for a draw.

Shows a level of disdain for us so, it's a team game - no reason to just bat on and let Mathews get his ton other than ego. Hope it backfires on them and they run short of time tomorrow.

DOH. Ignore

We haven't a hope in hell of bowling them out quickly, if at all on the basis of evidence these two tests :)

We should be fighting tooth & nail for a draw. Moor swipes two sixes and is gone.

Brain dead. You’d wonder why the coaches didn’t say to the players the obvious… “ you cannot win this test, it’s absolutely 10000% physically impossible, no stupid shît , just play deliveries on their merits, bat / play with a draw in mind…get a result. Hitting sixes or going arial or trying will get you out, or get you nothing, an Ireland win is impossible… so why trying to hit it in the air ? Like having 3 hours to drive 5 kilometres and going 40 over the limit… bizarre cricket

Sri Lanka 704/3 … the 24th highest test total of all time. To score that many and only loosing 3 wickets…

Tough one to save from here, but loads of batting and a decent wicket, so still a good chance of a draw, 704/3 is crazy, like a score from years ago when the County teams played the universitys

Struggling at 112/5, but the overnight batsmen are both not out, strange one, Balbirnie was hit by a ball and retired hurt, then Stirling (1), Tucker (13) and Campher (12) were all dismissed before Balbernie resumed and rejoined Harry Tector who is 27* Balbirnie 28* and trailing by 100

Timewise, what is end time to survive to?

Mcbrine out now, all down to Tector because there are only 3 rabbits left, looking grim 159/7

Redundant now, but that scenario would have been a draw. We'd have to take all 10 SL wickets to win before they passed our lead or time ran out. It's not like limited overs cricket. That's why we were in a very weak position and the only possible tactic was to bat resolutely for an honourable draw.

Disappointing alright, despite building a few timely partnerships in the 1st innings, we're just falling now and there's nowhere to hide.

I suppose positives from this match are our 1st innings total and Harry Tector's resolve in this innings. Balbirnie batted well overall but unnecessary shot lost him his wicket a while back. And he's the captain and must have seen the need to just stay put.

Negatives are our bowling, little penetration of threat and the SL bowlers are showing that's not just down to the wicket.

You'd have thought that a near 500 total in our first innings was giving us a chance of a victory and the great likelihood of a draw, but sadly no.

The most telling part I thought was SL choosing to bat on yesterday just so Mathews could pick up another ton. They knew the measure of us and that they could take their time. Not over yet of course but it'd be great escape of all time to get out of this one.

Tector seems determined to make SL bat again

Well that was tough. I don’t know if anyone had an innings loss on their bingo card after we posted 492 in the first.

It's happened to England a few times where they have hit 400+

Apparently it may be a new record, a dubious one. I suppose another positive to salvage is that we played near enough 5 full days on the trot, bar a few hours lost to rain. So valuable experience in that regard. Fair dues to Tector in this innings and hopefully we can hold onto him as a player unlike others of his calibre in the past. A pity we hadn't a few more yesterday and today with his resolve and skill.

The great effort in the first innings really pushed expectations to the point where a draw was eminently possible / likely.

then we end up loosing with over a session remaining. It’s the hope that kills ya.

A seriously sorry looking scorecard too in the second innings

This is key : One solitary half century and…. only a single other batsman scoring more than…. 20 ! Seriously conservative strike rates aswell so it wasn’t throwing the bat and them getting unlucky.

as much credit they were due for scoring 492 in the first innings…scoring 202 in the second…..that’s not nearly good enough…. You have to perform over each inning. These one off big flash in the pan scores are useless unless you back them up… even a 320 in the second would have saved us.

im only now going to look for the post match media but…. I’m sure Balbernie will be scuttering out of him about it being a ‘learning curve’ and how they’ll take the experience as a valuable lesson but he’s ‘overall’ happy how the tour went…well maybe not, there doesn’t seem to be any reaction covered by print or online media but will be interesting never the less if he does give thoughts. Nothing on sports sites or cricket Irelands social media.

strange… you expect some reaction from the captain, win lose or draw.

Well let’s be honest, both were contributing to the result… Sri Lanka probably would have scored 900 plus runs, maybe 1000 runs had they not decided to declare.

not taking wickets and batsmen failing in the second innings killed us….