studaultrey.com

U19 World Cup Qualifier: Ireland v Kenya at Rathmines (Leinster CC), 1st August

On Bank Holiday Monday morning, Rathmines, the Dublin mountains just about visible through the low cloud, was the venue for Ireland v Kenya, a match important to both sides in the U19 qualifiers, because each had lost on Sunday after winning their first two matches.  Five wins will probably ensure qualification, so a win here would leave the team needing just two wins out of five when the competition moves to Derry.

Ireland won the toss and asked Kenya to set a target.  This looked a good decision when after an exploratory couple of wides, Graeme McCarter bowled Vishran neck and crop.  This brought in Duncan Allan to join Patel.  Allan looked a good, correct bat and was very quick onto anything overpitched.  Patel was neat, well-organised and worked the ball around.

While McCarter bowled five overs from the Rathmines Road end, McCarthy and McDonnell were tried from the Mount Pleasant Avenue end before Adam Coughlan was introduced with his offies.  The mandatory power play ended on 38-1, and Dockrell and Coughlan conceded 23 more runs during the bowling power play.

The spinners Dockrell, Coughlan and McBrine limited Patel and Allan to only twenty runs in the next ten overs, making the batsmen a bit twitchy.  The pressure paid when Patel was caught behind off Dockrell for 28, and Allen should have followed when he lofted McBrine to long on.  Ryan Hunter, built for comfort, not for speed, didn't run in to take the catch.

Karim didn't last long, and was out when he played McBrine onto his pad, and Hodgins swooped from behind the stumps to take a fine catch.  Allan reached his fifty out of 97-3 after Dockrell had finished his spell of 10-1-20-1.  When Joseph Ochieng slogged McBrine to Dockrell at deep mid off, Kenya were 109-4 in the 36th over and struggling.

But Allan was batting well, Kennedy Ochieng proved very combative, and the pair gradually wrested away the initiative from the Irish as the game moved into the last ten overs.  It didn't help when Coughlan spilled a regulation catch at deep mid off from Allen, 75 at the time.  Never give a sucker an even break, goes the adage, and the Kenyans took 59 off the five batting power play overs 44-48.

They perished in the 49th over, bowled by McCarter, Ochieng caught and bowled for 32 and Allan bowled for a highly impressive 123.  The final total was 222-6, a stiff target, and not what Dockrell had in mind when he won the toss.  Without wishing to detract from the skill and bottle of the Kenyan batsmen, some off his bowlers and fielders could have done with displaying even three quarters of that skill and bottle.  I'll exempt Dockrell, McBrine (2/31) and McCarter (3/31) from that judgement.

Ireland's reward for bowling their fifty overs in a very creditable two and three quarter hours was to be forced to bat for half an hour before lunch.  Why?  Lunch was ready.  When I was a boy, limited overs cricket was introduced in part to speed the game up.  What has happened?  The game has got slower and slower, with little or no sanction for slow play and often perverse consequences for teams who get on with it.

Ryan Hunter continued to stand in his personal quicksand, didn't move his feet and poked a catch to Ringera off Ndandason for a duck.  Hugh McDonnell was moving his feet, played a couple of nice shots off the back foot, then had an almighty yahoo at Allan and was bowled for 11.  Lunch was taken at 18-2 off 7 overs.  Thanks very much, ICC.

After lunch, a couple of umpiring decisions didn't help Ireland's cause.  Dockrell was given run out by umpire Gould when George and I were convinced he'd made his ground, then Jason van der Merwe, having batted well, was given out caught behind for 20 by umpire Ramage when the ball flicked the pad on its way through.  You win some, you lose some.

Adam Coughlan nicked off to Ndandason, a poor shot, and Ireland were 56-5.  Shane Getkate joined Andy McBrine, and the pair got the score to 88 in the 30th over, when McBrine was bowled by Shikotra for 21.  As McCarter found his feet, Getkate took advantage of a missed catch (tough chance) to start finding the boundary.  The pair were running some chancy singles, and I thought McCarter got the benefit of not very much doubt from umpire Ramage on one occasion: you win some, you lose some.

Another reprieve for Getkate, again a tough chance, and then a rain interruption at 137-6 off 37.3 overs.  On resumption, Getkate and an increasingly confident McCarter saw Ireland continue to add 40 after over 35 to be 155-6 off 40: 68 needed off ten overs.  After hitting 6, 4, Getkate was caught for 63 by Kennedy Ochieng off Savala.  Barry McCarthy settled in while McCarter put it about, and 35 were needed off the last five overs, which would be the batting power play.

McCarthy, too, is a clean hitter of the ball, and when McCarter was caught for 51 in the 47th over, only 18 more were needed – less than a run a ball.  Josh Hall might have been caught when only 3, but he and McCarthy levelled the scores after 49 overs.  The field was brought in, and two dots were followed by a lovely extra cover drive from Hall which sped to the boundary for the win, McCarthy 26* and Hall 10*.

For Kenya, Ndandason bowled his ten overs and took 2/34, Savala took 2/32 off his ten, and Allan's previously good figures were muddied at the end.  The Irish bowlers, having not distinguished themselves in the field, rescued the batsmen yet again.  Ireland can win tough, but when will they learn to win easy?