An abominable showing by Ireland in yesterday's Triple Crown match at Rathmines saw them riddled for a paltry 153 by lunch, with just over four overs remaining.
Barry Archer's 38 (74 balls, four fours), Peter Davy's 34 (64 deliveries, six fours) and Ryan Eagleson's 21 (47 balls, one six) saved Ireland from even greater humiliation. By then it was obvious that, barring a miracle, or a collective lemming-like leap by the Wales players from the clubhouse balcony to certain destruction, the inept Irish were in for a good, old-fashioned seeing-to.
Dwayne McGerrigle, who took a wicket, and Matt Dwyer, who didn't, bowled economically. Jamie Sylvester and Roger Clithero departed early, but top-scorer Gareth Davies with 64 (134 deliveries, nine fours) and Kristian Bell with 45 (77 balls, seven fours) saw Wales home to a comfortable eight-wicket victory.
Today Ireland face England at Malahide, trying to avoid a whitewash. After yesterday, we'll be watching this one in a mood of quiet pessimism.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)