Umpire's doubtful call the difference

CRICKET: After the heroics of beating Gloucestershire on Sunday, a second C&G Trophy victory in as many days was possibly too much to hope for.

But Ireland came within a whisker of achieving that against Glamorgan yesterday, demonstrating again that any side that takes them lightly does so at their considerable peril.

And but for a poor decision by umpire Neil Mallender, who gave captain Trent Johnston out caught behind when the replay indicated daylight between bat and ball, it could have been so much different.

At that stage, Ireland were on 219, needing 32 to win off 25 balls, and with the captain and David Langford-Smith batting well, they were probably favourites.

As it was, Langford-Smith continued to bat in his usual fluent style after Johnston's departure and got the team within 15 of Glamorgan's 250 runs, but in the penultimate over he was caught on the long-off boundary.

It has been, however, a wonderful weekend for Irish cricket. Their 47-run win in Bristol on Sunday and close defeat yesterday have shown the days of Ireland being the whipping boys of this tournament are over.

Having lost the toss, Ireland did well to restrict Glamorgan to their total of 250 for 9 off 50 overs. It was a good batting track, and considering the Dragons got off to a flyer, scoring at around eight an over until the 16th over, a total over 300 was on the cards.

But a fine spell of bowling from Johnston in the middle of the innings put the home side on the back foot, and made life very difficult for the tail-enders.

Johnston had opened the Irish bowling, and his two early overs went for 16, but his second spell later on was much more impressive as he took 3 for 21 off eight, including the crucial middle-order wickets of Michael Powell, David Hemp and Nicky Peng.

Ireland's spinners, Kyle McCallan, Saqlain Mushtaq and Shahid Afridi, also did their job to stem the Glamorgan run rate after the quicker bowlers, Adrian McCoubrey and Langford-Smith, had taken a serious beating early on.

Openers Robert Croft and Mark Cosgrove had put on 86 for the first wicket before Andre Botha clean bowled Croft for 30 in the 11th over. Cosgrove made 75 off just 57 balls.

But when he was out, caught by Eoin Morgan off the bowling of Saqlain, Glamorgan lost their way, and the Irish were happy to have conceded only 250 runs.

But the Glamorgan opening bowlers did well. Simon Jones, who did so much to win the Ashes for England, accounted for the early wickets of Dominick Joyce (1) and Eoin Morgan (13).

Jeremy Bray was then out for 16, run out for the third time in a row, in careless circumstances. The Eglinton left-hander edged the ball to fine-leg, and while returning for a second run he mistakenly thought the ball had crossed the boundary and stopped running half-way down the track. Jones then threw the ball in and he was run out.

Botha followed Bray shortly after, and then Peter Gillespie and overseas player Afridi put on 55 for the fifth wicket with the Pakistani giving a robust display. His 54 came off 41 balls and included four fours and three sixes.

When he was out going for another big one, Gillespie and McCallan then took up the slack. Gillespie was playing his 100th match for Ireland and made a gutsy 54 while McCallan hit 30 in a partnership of 74.

And even though the wickets fell at inopportune moments, Ireland were in this match right until the last ball. And had umpire Mallender kept his finger in his pocket, where it belonged, it might have had a different outcome.