It may be a cliché, but this afternoon in Clontarf Ireland lived up to it, as they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Thanks to Ed Joyce’s classy unbeaten 116 Pakistan were set a target of 230 to win the 2nd ODI at a sunny Clontarf in front of a full house largely composed of Pakistan supporters.
It felt like a game in Lahore rather than Dublin. However, these same supporters were in a state of shock when a sensational opening spell of bowling by Trent Johnston and Tim Murtagh had Pakistan reeling at 17 for 4 wickets in the 10th over and indeed it could have been even better for Ireland as two catches were put down in the space of three balls in that same over. Misbah ul Haq and Shoaib Malik then took the score to 60 before Misbah was caught and bowled by Cusack for 24. That brought the eventual man of the match, Kamran Akmal, to the wicket and they took the score to 112 when Malik was adjudged lbw to Dockrell for 43. Dockrell bowled magnificently to only concede 16 runs in his first 8 overs including just 4 runs in the 3 overs he bowled in the powerplay. It was a major surprise that he was taken off with still two of his overs left. Pakistan needed 89 off the last 10 overs with just 3 wickets left and Wahib Riaz got the benefit of the doubt on a close lbw decision at the start of his innings.
Unfortunately the disciplined bowling of the first forty overs disappeared and a series of half volleys and long hops resulted in Akmal and Riaz crashing the ball to all parts of the ground and indeed out of it. By the time Akmal was out for his match winning 81 of 85 balls, which contained 11 fours and 2 sixes, only four runs were needed. Riaz also made a massive contribution to the 93 run partnership with 47 of just 35 balls hitting 4 fours and 4 huge sixes.
For Ireland Ed Joyce batted quite superbly to finish on 116 not out, rescuing Ireland from a perilous position after the early loss of Thursday’s centurion Paul Stirling for 0 in the first over. Stirling was caught at midwicket from a mistimed pull shot off the bowling of Junaid Khan. Three overs later captain William Porterfield was caught by wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal off debutant Asad Ali for 1. Joyce together with Niall O’Brien rebuilt the innings with a partnership of 65 in 17 overs before O’Brien was also caught at the wicket, this time off Wahab Riaz for 29.
Gary Wilson had only made 5 when he was caught at slip with a failed reverse sweep to give Abdur Rehman the first of his four wickets. The arrival to the wicket of Kevin O’Brien signalled a change in tempo as he and Joyce gradually accelerated until the end of the 34th over when with the score on 120 they took the 5 over powerplay. They blasted 53 runs over those 5 overs with a mixture of power and finesse. At this stage Ireland looked set for a score in excess of 250 but a collapse saw 4 wickets fall in 5 overs for just the addition of 11 runs.
Kevin O’Brien fell to a good catch on the boundary for 38, debutant James Shannon was bowled for 2, Trent Johnston fell LBW for 1 and Cusack chipped a soft catch to midwicket for a duck. However Tim Murtagh stayed with Joyce to add 33 for the 9th wicket during which Joyce went to his first ODI hundred for Ireland with a massive six over the pavilion. Murtagh was caught for 6 in the final over and Joyce saw out the innings, crashing the last ball for four.
Pakistan had earlier won the toss on a much warmer day than Thursday and put Ireland into bat. Ireland made one change giving an ODI debut to James Shannon who replaced his Instonians teammate Andrew White. This meant there was no recall for John Mooney following the completion of his suspension.
Pakistan made three changes, discarding quick bowlers Mohammad Irfan and Eshan Adil for Wahab Riaz and debutant Asad Ali. World number ODI bowler Saeed Ajmal was replaced by Abdur Rehman. It was two of the replacements who were the best of the Pakistan bowlers, with Asad Ali only conceding 22 runs in 10 overs, while Rehman finished with 4 for 48 off his ten.
Apart from the last 10 overs today Ireland matched Pakistan over both games. They will need a better strategy in the death overs against teams of this calibre. Where were the changes of pace and yorkers?
While there is distinct disappointment in the Ireland camp for a real opportunity missed, they will look forward with relish to the crucial World Cup in Holland in July. They know that they are in a league of their own at Associate level.
Man of the match was Kamran Akmal and Man of the Series was Kevin O’Brien.
-Odran Flynn
