Ireland’s cricketers are opening their account in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 in Nelson, New Zealand, against the West Indies tonight. There were optimistic noises from the Ireland camp in advance of the game. And they might not be misplaced. At time of writing, having won the toss and deciding to field, Ireland have restricted the West Indies to 120 for 5 from 32 overs. Spinner George Dockrell has already snaffled the key wickets of Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels.
You can follow the match via the BBC text coverage, also on Radio 5live. Or use Cricinfo’s excellent text commentary.
Final West Indies 304 for 7 from 50 overs.
A sixth-wicket stand of 154 runs by Simmons and Sammy has made this more difficult than it should have been for Ireland.
It’s a lot higher total than Ireland were hoping for.
Update Oh ye of little faith… [Ye!? – Ed]
As I was sleeping, Ireland set about dismantling the West Indies bowling, comfortably overhauling their target to reach 307 for 6 from 45.5 overs.
Ireland win by 4 wickets!
It’s only the fifth successful World Cup chase in excess of 300 runs. And three of those have been by Ireland.
As former England spinner Graeme Swann said,
“I’d say this is a better victory than the one against England, that was a one-man show from Kevin O’Brien, this was a team effort, five or six people putting their hands up and delivering a world class performance.”
Indeed.
Watch the match highlights here.
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