Begorah! 4:30 this morning found me with baby watching Pakistan stumble towards 131 against Ireland in the ICC World Cup. We eventually got to sleep before Ireland’s innings began but I had the thought that Ireland could be in with a chance.
And indeed it was a St Patrick’s day to remember as Ireland beat Pakistan by 3 wickets. This comes after Ireland’s tie with Zimbabwe. It is one of the biggest upsets in tournament history and they have effectively ended Pakistan’s World Cup hopes.
And it wasn’t the only boil over. Bangladesh knocked over India last night as well.
4 responses so far ↓
tigtog // Mar 18, 2007 at 2:07 pm
I know! mr tog and I were watching this morning too (although not quite so early). What a shakeup!
I like it. I hope they can keep it up. It would be nice to have the cricket a bit less predictable.
Shaun // Mar 18, 2007 at 8:17 pm
While exposing the ‘minnows’ to the big guys can result in a few trashings, you also get some great results as earlier today.
Also if the major tournaments are only confined to the top few teams, it will never help cricket expand.
If Ireland make the Super 8 it will be a great result for cricket (though I doubt they will progress any further).
wrongun // Mar 20, 2007 at 3:18 pm
I just love it when stuff like this happens. Great show.
David Jackmanson // Mar 20, 2007 at 5:23 pm
Still agree with whoever said that the minnows have no place at the World Cup.
The way to develop cricket in the ‘minnow’ countries would be to give scholarships to good players to come and play either first-class or high-level grade cricket in the top countries.
That way you’d build a pool of ‘minnow’ players with experience playing against the people who are going to get picked for the teams of the top countries.
Good on the Irish team for having a go, but there is no way these Irish successes are going to fundamentally change the structure of cricket there - they will still be minnows next time around.
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