CRICKET TWENTY/20 WORLD CUP:NEW ZEALAND may have been far from full strength here yesterday, but they showed yet again that the gap between the big boys and the chiselers at the top table of world cricket can be very wide at times.
The bare facts in this opening Super Eights clash don’t make for good reading, but at least Ireland now know that at the business end of this World Twenty20 there will be little sympathy on display.
New Zealand favoured the aerial route yesterday, hitting nine sixes as they ran up a score of 198 for five from their 20 overs, before bowling out Ireland for 115 with 20 balls left to secure an 83-run win.
Ireland skipper William Porterfield said afterwards this was a game Ireland had targeted for an upset and they would have been buoyed by the news New Zealand were going into the match without key batsmen Jesse Ryder and Ross Taylor, while skipper Daniel Vettori was also sitting out the game with a sore shoulder.
The Black Caps called up opening batsman Aaron Redmond in Ryder’s stead; the 29-year-old has been playing with Farnworth in the Bolton League.
Sadly for Ireland, the opening two overs from Peter Connell and Trent Johnston were more akin to what he would have been facing over the last few weeks and the right-hander filled his boots.
New Zealand-born Connell had come in for his first start in the competition ahead of Boyd Rankin, but he offered Redmond the gentlest of introductions as his full toss was dispatched to the boundary.
Two more would follow in the first over as Connell went for 14, while Johnston, Ireland’s star with the ball against Bangladesh, would concede four boundaries and 18 runs as New Zealand raced to 32.
Redmond had hit 30 of those off just 10 deliveries, but the real worry for Ireland came in the fact that looking on at the other end was none other than Brendon McCullum, one of the most explosive batsmen in T20 cricket.
He teed off in the fifth over, hitting his side’s first six off Kevin O’Brien, but departed just four balls later when Kyle McCallan enticed him to drive into the hands of Regan West at mid-off.
Redmond looked set to threaten the top score in the competition before Alex Cusack trapped him leg-before for 63, off just 30 balls.
Martin Guptill (45 not out) and Scott Styris (42) hit seven sixes between them. Their 61-run partnership for the third wicket only came to an end when McCallan claimed his second scalp, with Kevin O’Brien taking a fingertip catch at deep square leg.
Ireland’s reply got off to an horrific start when Porterfield was run out for one, while backing up, and three more players would perish in the same way.
Johnston’s may have come as the result of a stunning piece of fielding from Brendon McCullum, but Andre Botha and John Mooney’s fell into the careless category.
Botha top-scored with 28 from 17 deliveries before failing to make his ground, while a direct hit accounted for Mooney for 12.
Although admitting it’s an integral part of this shortened game, Porterfield was unhappy with some of the dismissals.
With a couple of days off before they tackle Sri Lanka at Lord’s on Sunday, Porterfield said his side will quickly put yesterday’s defeat to bed and move on.
“We had an off-day today, it was a game where we thought we could come in and compete better. As long as we keep on learning from every game and improving as a team then that’s all we can ask for.”
An off-day maybe, but the Irish players took some late evening sunshine and no little joy in watching England capitulate to 111 all out in their game against South Africa.
It’s the thing about off-days: everyone suffers them.
