Ireland vs New Zealand:
Friday November 4th, 4am start (Irish time)
Adelaide Oval, live on Sky Sports
It ain’t over till it’s over.
Come Friday morning, the T20 World Cup will almost certainly be over for Ireland. Per analysis firm CricViz, they have a 0.5 per cent chance of reaching the semi-finals.
So you’re saying there’s a chance? Mathematically at least, but a win over one of the tournament’s best sides New Zealand in Ireland’s final Super 12 encounter is required plus beneficial — and crucially, unlikely — results elsewhere.
Regardless of qualification, hopes of another notable World Cup scalp in what has been a stellar tournament will be high. Key to doing so for Ireland will be countering New Zealand’s threats with the ball that give them favourable match-ups.
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The Blackcaps’ spinners, Ish Sodhi and Mitchell Santner, present a challenge to Ireland’s right-handed dominant batting line-up given the direction they turn the ball. That said, in Andrew Balbirnie, Paul Stirling, Lorcan Tucker and Curtis Campher, Ireland have four players in their top five who generally excel against spin.
If New Zealand bowled their slower bowlers early against England to exploit positive match-ups, they may still do so vs Ireland to some extent while holding an over or two back from, say leg-spinner Sodhi, to deal with Ireland’s lower-order and their weakness against spin. It was a tactic with which England had success when bowling Liam Livingstone to Ireland’s lower hitters.
Elsewhere, after Australia’s Mitchell Starc tore through Ireland in one scintillating over with his left-arm in-swing, New Zealand’s Trent Boult presents a near identical challenge. Expect him to see plenty of the new ball, perhaps even more than usual.
When Ireland bowl, Josh Little’s match-up to the destructive hitting of Kiwi opener Finn Allen will be fascinating. Heading into New Zealand’s clash with England, Allen had been dismissed once every 11 balls by left-arm seam in the powerplay. England bowled left-armer Sam Curran to him and it worked beautifully.
Ireland will no doubt do the same with their trump card Little. The result of that individual battle could go a long way to keeping Ireland in the game — or otherwise
Elsewhere, in a frustrating scheduling clash, Ireland’s first game of any kind in Pakistan risks slipping under the radar given the opening match of the women’s tour of that country is on at the same time as the men’s final World Cup encounter.
After securing qualification for the T20 World Cup back in September, Laura Delany’s side returns to 50-over cricket on Friday morning (4.30am start Irish time, live on Pakistan Cricket YouTube channel) as part of the ICC Women’s Championship.
The foreign conditions where spin will be especially prevalent present a significant challenge, but the heat at this time of year in Pakistan at least won’t be as crippling as it was during that recent qualification bid in the UAE.
Of all the sides in the Women’s Championship, Pakistan represents a better chance of a scalp for Ireland than most. They’ll have three One Day Internationals and then three T20s (separate from the championship) to do so.
