CRICKET:OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS fleetingly at the highest level of sport as Ireland found yesterday in letting a gilt-edged one pass in their opening World Cup encounter with Bangladesh in Mirpur.
In the end the scorecard recorded a 27-run defeat for Phil Simmons’ side in the cauldron of the Sher-e-Bangla stadium as the Bangladeshi fans found their voices again and waved banners, one that read “Revenge is a dish best served cold” in relation to Ireland’s Super Eights victory over the Tigers in Barbados back in 2007.
On a track as slow as a wet weekend, Ireland bowled and fielded like demons to restrict the home side to 205, dragging them back from an explosive start that saw openers Tamim Iqbal and Imrul Kayes score 49 runs in the first five overs.
Needing just four runs an over, Ireland fell between stools in how they approached the chase against Bangladesh’s slew of slow bowlers and were missing the one real innings of class that was required.
It looked like it might yet come again from the blade of Niall O’Brien, the hero of Ireland’s victory over Pakistan four years ago, but the left-hander fell to a stunning catch from Tamim running in from the square leg boundary after making 38.
His younger brother Kevin also looked well set having added 41 in partnership with Andre Botha, including the game’s only six, only to perish after doing all the ground work in making 37 when sub fielder Suhrawadi Shuvo held on to a pull shot at deep square leg.
It provided Shafiul Islam with his first wicket, and the seamer would go on to excel with the new ball to extinguish Ireland’s hopes, taking four for 21 as Ireland were bowled out for 178 with five overs to spare.
Ireland skipper William Porterfield pulled no punches in his assessment of the failings on the day, while promising that it will be quickly put to bed before the team travel on to India later today ahead of the clash with England in Bangalore on Wednesday.
“It’s not hard to work out where we lost this game, we let ourselves down with the bat,” was Porterfield’s frank assessment. “After 50 overs it was pretty good and to claw it back after the first five or six overs with the ball we did really well.
“You can’t afford that many soft dismissals throughout a tournament, let alone an innings, but we’ve just got have to bounce back from this, we can’t get too down.
“We’ve got a lot of cricket still to play in this tournament. We’ve showed glimpses of what we can do there and we’ve batted well in the two warm-up games coming into this tournament. We have to leave the batting here and move on to Bangalore.”
The positives Porterfield pointed to mostly came in the first innings, although it was hard to have any optimism when Bangladesh’s openers tore into Boyd Rankin and Trent Johnston first up.
The North County pair of John Mooney, earning his 100th cap, and Andre Botha stemmed the tide by taking the pace off the ball to great effect, and Mooney got his reward with the wicket of Kayes thanks to a brilliant stumping from Niall O’Brien.
A direct hit from Ed Joyce ran out Junaid Siddique for three, before Botha claimed the key scalps of Tamim for 44, with Porterfield taking a low catch at point, and Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hasan with an acrobatic caught and bowled.
It left the home side on 86 for four, but a 61-run stand between Mushfiqur Rahim and Raqibul Hasan shifted the initiative back in their favour.
That was before 18-year-old George Dockrell got in on the act in an incredibly assured bowling performance on his 50-over World Cup debut. The left-arm spinner gave the ball plenty of flight, delivering it with accuracy to stifle the batsmen in the middle overs.
And when the frustration got too much, both Rahim (36) and Mohammad Ashraful (one) fell while trying to sweep, with Andrew White taking both catches at backward square leg.
Dockrell would finish with figures of two for 23 from his 10 overs, an exceptional debut in the competition, but one that would eventually end up in the file marked “one that got away”
