Sunday morning Afghanistan gets the fifth ICC World T20 finals underway when they take on the host nation Bangladesh. However for Ireland cricket followers all eyes will be on the St. Patricks Day clash with Zimbabwe.
This is the fourth successive time that Ireland has qualified for the finals of cricket’s shortest format. Ireland made it to Bangladesh by sweeping all before them in the 16 team qualifying tournament in the UAE last November which culminated in a crushing victory over Afghanistan in the final.

Now you would think that qualifying for the finals would actually mean that you would be in the main draw alongside all of the top nations. Justifiably FIFA is much maligned as a sporting body but they are like the cradle of democracy when compared to the machinations that emanate from the corridors of power in the headquarters of the ICC. Ireland, together with the other five qualifiers from the UAE , now have to partake in another qualifying competition to determine the two teams that will join the top eight Full Members in the actual finals. So last November the trophy that Ireland won was in reality the World T20 qualifier to qualify for another World T20 qualifier.

ICC of course doesn’t see it as that. They refer to the matches this coming week as the first round of the finals. To return to my FIFA analogy it is akin to Ireland qualifying for football’s world cup in Brazil but then being told that they have to play three more matches when they get there before they can get the opportunity to compete against the major teams. To give a veneer of equality to the first round matches, Full Members Bangladesh and Zimbabwe will join the six qualifiers from November with the winners of each of the two groups of four teams progressing to the second stage. This convoluted system is to ensure that none of the top eight teams exit the competition at an early stage which would aggravate the broadcasters who pay huge sums to televise the games. Ironically Ireland and Bangladesh are primarily responsible for the desire to protect the top teams. In the 50 over World Cup in 2007 in the West Indies the clash of the tournament was to be the Super Eight match between India and Pakistan. The match was sold out months in advance and advertisers paid premium rates to hawk their wares between overs.

To the shock and horror of the ICC and the broadcasters, Ireland eliminated Pakistan while Bangladesh turned over India and they went on to play the match that Asia didn’t want. ICC or to give them their proper name, India, were determined to ensure that this eventuality could never happen again. Zimbabwe and Bangladesh have been well compensated for being forced to play in this preliminary round, with Bangladesh hosting the tournament while Zimbabwe got another large payment from the ICC to enable them to pay their players thus ending a strike that threatened their participation in the finals. The ICC didn’t seem to particularly care that they were again propping up a Zimbabwe Cricket Board that is immersed in even more allegations of corruption than those levelled at, and in many cases proved, in the Irish planning permission scandal.

So on St. Patricks Day Ireland will celebrate the seventh anniversary of their breakthrough into big time cricket with another must win match against a Test nation. After their heroics in 2013 most observers would have made Ireland favourites to win this game and that status would have been reinforced by their two games against current World T 20 Cup holders, West Indies, last month. A superb bowling and fielding performance in both games resulted in a win and a close fought defeat that in reality should also have brought a win.

However the favourites tag has diminished somewhat on the back of performances in four warm up matches, two in Dubai last week and a further two this week in Bangladesh. Three of these games were lost while the only win was against Nepal who is making their debut on the world stage.

It is probably yesterday’s comprehensive loss to Bangladesh that has raised the greatest concerns. However Ireland never gets the adrenalin going for warm up matches. Yes it is true that as a collective unit the batting has come nowhere near the heights of November when, especially in the latter stages of the tournament, they demolished every bowling attack that they faced. It was usually the blistering starts by Paul Stirling and William Porterfield that give the innings an impetus that was carried on by the rest of the batting line up. While Porterfield has spent time at the crease and got decent runs in this week’s matches, Stirling continues to struggle. His highest score this year is a mere 19 achieved on Wednesday against Nepal. With Kevin O’Brien not firing on all cylinders either it is imperative that at least one of Ireland’s most destructive hitters reacquaints himself with the middle of the bat next week. While the rest of the batsmen are well capable of accumulating runs at a reasonable rate, T20’s are invariably determined by one or two batsmen blasting eighty runs off fifty deliveries which will usually result in a team score of 160 plus which will always be competitive.

Niall O’Brien was dropped from the Ireland side midway through the qualifying tournament in the UAE and it now appears that he is only in Bangladesh as back up wicketkeeper to Gary Wilson while his replacement then, James Shannon, has also been discarded from the starting eleven. Andrew Poynter has been entrusted with the role of a middle order batsman and it was his partnership with Ed Joyce that ensured that Ireland won the first West Indies T20. However Poynter has yet to demonstrate that he can produce telling contributions on a consistent basis.

The bowling attack was magnificent in both the West Indies games with standout performances from Alex Cusack who deservedly was awarded man of the series. It is an open secret that Cusack needs to be wrapped in cotton wool these days as his body needs to be rested at every opportunity. Yesterday was the first time that he has bowled since those games and while he was clattered around the park it served the purpose of getting the rustiness out of his system and he will be much the better for it come Monday morning. The spin bowlers have consistently been the best performers this year with Andy McBrine in particular showing that he can compete at this level. Together with George Dockrell and Paul Stirling, McBrine can control the rate of scoring on wickets that encourage pace off the ball.

Neither Tim Murtagh nor Max Sorensen have been at their best in the past few weeks particularly against better batsmen than you regularly find at Associate level. If McBrine starts, as he should, then at least one of Murtagh or Sorensen will be on the side-lines. The revelation this past few games has been Stuart Thompson who has been regarded as a seam bowler who can bat a bit. However in recent games he has been transformed into a nerveless batsman who scores runs consistently with a strike rate normally associated with Paul Stirling or Kevin O’Brien. His bowling has not suffered in comparison with either Murtagh or Sorensen and it was surprising that he didn’t bowl a single delivery yesterday against Bangladesh. He has very adequately filled the void left by the unavailability of John Mooney. Indeed you could make a case for the seam attack to consist of Thompson, Cusack and Kevin O’Brien supported by the three pronged spin attack. This would allow for an extra batsman, either Niall O’Brien or James Shannon, to be drafted in to bolster the batting.

However Phil Simmons usually sticks with the tried and trusted and keeps changes to the minimum and I would anticipate Sorensen starting.

While Zimbabwe have had little match practice recently they are still formidable opponents as they demonstrated yesterday when they comfortably chased down Afghanistan’s total of 168. Although that in itself shouldn’t send any tremors through the Ireland squad as they have consistently beaten the Afghans in recent years. While the Zimbabwe bowling should hold no fears for Ireland, their batting has a number of impressive performers such as skipper Brendan Taylor, Hamilton Masakadsa, Sean Williams, Elton Chigumbura and Sikandar Riza. However if Ireland can reproduce their form of both the qualifiers and particularly that against the West Indies it should be enough to see them edge home to give them another famous St. Patricks Day victory.

Ireland will not be naive to see a win against Zimbabwe to be sufficient to guarantee progress to the second round. They still have to face UAE for the third time in this tournament having beaten them twice last November. The Emiratis will be competing in conditions very similar to their own back home and their array of spinners will provide a formidable test to the Ireland batsmen but Ireland have been successful against them in these types of conditions in recent times and if they have beaten Zimbabwe will have the confidence to repeats those wins.

Ireland’s last match in the first round is against the Netherlands, one of their more regular opponents in Associate competitions, and have consistently beaten them. The Netherlands are smarting from having lost their ODI status, a consequence of failing to finish in the top six qualifying competition for next year’s 50 over World Cup. They will be determined to prove that they are better than that. This morning’s call up to the squad of Tom Cooper, an astonishing omission in the first place, will be a significant boost to the batting line up where he will join his brother Ben in the team. Cooper, who replaces the injured Tim Gruijters, has been a regular in the South Australia Sheffield Shield team and last month scored 175 against Queensland and 81 against Victoria. He continued his excellent form with 89 against New South Wales less than a fortnight ago. He also was a regular for the Melbourne Renegades in this season's Big Bash. The Dutch have a decent bowling attack and Cooper’s addition to their batting will make them an opponent that would be perilous to take lightly.

In Group A the winners of tomorrows match will be short favourites to progress and Afghanistan will still be riding the wave having beaten Bangladesh in the Asia Cup earlier this month. While neither Hong Kong nor Nepal will be easy matches it would be an amazing outcome if neither of the sides in the opening match were to be still involved in the tournament in a week’s time.

While there will be a lot of heart flutters along the way I believe that Ireland and Bangladesh will be making plans to face four Test nations in ten days’ time.