CRICKET:AS THE Ireland team coach was pulling out of the VOC grounds on Saturday afternoon, the local radio DJ captured the mood of the jubilant party just right as 10cc's Dreadlock Holidayblasted out on the stereo.
With its well known refrain of "I don't like cricket, oh no, I love it", it could easily sum up the last two weeks for the national side.
The defeats to New Zealand and Scotland in Aberdeen could have had a lasting effect on a young squad, but their emphatic Intercontinental Cup defeat of the Netherlands by an innings and 67 runs showed they are made of sterner stuff.
The 20 points gained in Rotterdam puts the defending champions above Kenya in to second place in the table, and they can take top spot with a victory over Canada in Malahide next month.
Skipper Kyle McCallan pointed to his side's "bounce-back ability" as key, and nobody summed that up better than opening bowler Peter Connell.
After being mauled against the country of his birth in Aberdeen, where his nine overs went for 95 runs, he made headlines here for all the right reasons, entering cricketing history books to boot.
Connell ended the game in the most dramatic of fashions with a hat-trick that also gave him 10 wickets on his first-class debut.
He became the 16th player to record a hat-trick in first-class history, but the first to do so in an international match. Surely none of the others could have been more exciting, as Connell destroyed the Dutch tail with the last three deliveries of the first over with the new ball.
A further trawl through the record books shows that he is only the third player in first-class history to record both a hat-trick and a 10-for on his first-class debut, the last of those coming 60 years ago.
"You couldn't have scripted it any better," remarked Connell, proudly holding on to the unmarked match ball as a memento of the occasion. "I was hoping for five at the end of the first innings. I dreamt of getting six to get my first ever 10-for, and on my first-class debut also. It's my first ever hat-trick as well, and to do it at international level, I'm ecstatic," he added.
Connell's performance wasn't enough to take the man of the match honours, as the judges believed Andre Botha's innings of 172 was the defining contribution.
Connell didn't mind missing out, saying: "No problem at all, he batted very well and proved that if you applied yourself it was a decent batting wicket, so it was pleasing to come out and take 10 wickets," added the 26-year-old North Down player.
Connell sealed victory 50 minutes after lunch on the final day, a stunning feat given over a day of play was lost due to rain.
McCallan, though, remained confident his side would claim the full quota of points on offer.
"We are really encouraged by the way we played, we drove the game from the front the whole way despite being in trouble, having lost the toss.
"Andre's knock put us in a position to give us two days to bowl them out twice, and the way we bowled over the course of the last two days has been outstanding.
"It's a massive thing for Irish cricket to have a bit of a cutting edge in our attack again and long may it continue.
"This result sets us up brilliantly for the Europeans and the Twenty20 qualifiers and onwards to another very important game against Canada."
There was more good news over the weekend as Eoin Morgan made it two centuries in two innings with an unbeaten 137 in Middlesex's County Championship clash with Gloucestershire at Bristol.
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