IRELAND'S cricketers will take the field against Somerset at Taunton this morning with spirits unusually high.
Which is no bad thing, though neither the players nor coach Mike Hendrick will be under any illusions, either, that famous victory at Castle Avenue notwithstanding.
Trouble is, that after the heady successes against Middlesex on Monday and Tuesday, rather a lot is going to be expected of the team, and also of its hired gun, Hansie Cronje. Not by the regular followers of the game, who know better than to take too much for granted of cricket, of all games, but perhaps by the larger Irish sporting public, rather unaccustomed as they are to seeing matches getting banner headlines in their newspapers.
But there again, a great deal was expected of Cronje, whose remuneration for his Benson & Hedges campaign would be enough to keep your average sports journalist going for a year or four. You could almost feel sorry for Cronje, as he walked out to the Clontarf crease last Monday; a solitary error, in playing conditions foreign to him, and the prophets of doom would have been in their element.
Like the pro that he is, Cronje eased himself in, helped by the support of his partners, before unleashing himself upon the Middlesex attack. Yes, of course it's expected that a professional player will do that, and continue to do it; let's lust say that here's hoping that the fairy tale will continue at Taunton today.
At Clontarf Cronje more than got by with a little help from his friends, not least among them Decker Curry. Curry, with Kyle McCallan, put on 72 for the first wicket, and with Alan Lewis had taken that to 117 for the second, before playing on. But that provided Cronje with a fine comfort zone - rather different for instance, than coming in with two down for only, say 10 runs.
The freewheeling Curry is not available for today's match. His place has gone to Declan Moore, skipper of The Hills this season, and a very promising young player indeed; otherwise, the team will be unchanged.
But the demolition job which Somerset inflicted on Glamorgan - Ireland's opponents at Cardiff on Monday - the other day should give us pause. Somerset raced home by an impressive 141 runs, helped by a knock of 77 off 80 balls by Mark Lathwell, who earlier had been dropped by Glamorgan's captain, Hugh Morris.
Somerset's other stars were Richard Harden 68 off 84 - Mike Burns, who scored 30 and took three for 18, and Andy Caddick, with three for 30. And today, Ireland may be obliged to cope with an even greater potential threat.
The Pakistan leg spinner Mushtaq Ahmed was due to arrive in England yesterday, to join his Somerset colleagues. Somerset's captain Peter Bowler had included him in the squad, depending on the star's state of health, following a long international flight, not to mention a busy winter of Test matches.
Another major challenge for Ireland, then. No doubt about it, though a second, unprecedented Benson & Hedges win would result in the knocking back of a few well deserved libations of scrumpy, in Taunton this evening.
