Ireland have sealed the ODI series against West Indies by 2-1. After having beaten in the first ODI, they came back strongly in the second game and went on to claim the series eventually in the final encounter. The growth of Ireland cricket has been immense over the years. This however is a special win for them as this is only the second time that Ireland have won a series against a Test playing nation with the other being Zimbabwe in 2019. That win came at home while this came as visitors.
Pakistan Out of World Cup
It did start back in 2007 when Ireland beat Pakistan to throw them out of the World Cup. It was their first ODI World Cup and they were through to the Super-8 based on a classic innings by Niall O’Brien. Winning the toss Ireland elected to field first and their bowlers justified the decision by bowling out Pakistan batters for mete 132. A sensation performance from Ireland saw Kamran Akmal scoring Pakistan’s highest score, 27 followed by a 24 from Imran Nazir. They ran through the line up and Pakistan were bundled out within 46 overs. Ireland chase did not have a good start as they lost a couple of wickets cheaply. The conditions were in favour of Pakistan bowlers but once Ireland lost two openers, O’Brien, the wicketkeeper focused on stabilizing the innings and despite losing wickets he kept the chase on. When he was dismissed for 72, Ireland still needed 25 runs to win. His brother Kevin O’Brien completed the chase and remained unbeaten for 16.
Ireland Beat the Neighbours
Ireland since then developed a habit of creating upsets in the World Cup. The next World Cup in 2011 saw a similar deadly performance from Ireland and this time Kevin O’Brien emerged as the hero. It is arguably the greatest victory by Ireland to that considering the mammoth of runs they were chasing. England batted first and all of their top order batters contributed to set a target of 328 for the minnows. The top four England scorers were Jonathan Trott (92), Ian Bell (81), kevin Pietersen (59), Andrew Strauss (34). Ireland were nowhere in the game. The chase in fact started by Ireland losing William Porterfield for a duck. The middle-order stabilized the innings but to win the match, a special knock was the need of the hour and Kevin O’Brien came up with it. It was his 63-ball 113, the fastest hundred in World Cup history before he was run-out that won the match for Ireland by three wickets with just five balls in hand.
Recent Show Against South Africa
The next memorable match would be their latest against South Africa. This match was spart of ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Super League. It took Ireland to beat South Africa first time in seven One Day Internationals as the captain Andy Balbirnie led from the front. In this match Ireland batted first and led by Balbirnie’s 102, they set a target of 291 for South Africa. Harry Tector was another major contributor with 79 runs. The South Africa chase was mostly on track despite losing two quick wickets, thanks to Janneman Malan (85) and Rassie van der Dussen (49). But once both of them were gone in successive overs, almost a procession began. Eventually the chase was wrapped up for 247.
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