By Shreyas Bhide
Amongst the many news stories such as India beating Sri Lanka, South Africa scoring a Test serieswin, Gilchrist calling for cricket’s inclusion in 2020 Olympics, Vaughan and Collingwood’s resignation, Kevin Pieterson’s appointment as England skipper and amidst heroics of Sehwag, Pieterson, Graeme Smith, Harbhajan and so on, one small piece of news that everyone failed to notice was Ireland winning the World Cup T20 spot in England next year.
The World Cup to be held in England next year, were to feature all top teams along with 2 associate teams, according to the original schedule. The tournament involved the six leading Associate teams – Bermuda, Canada, Ireland, Kenya, the Netherlands and Scotland. Group A was made up of Ireland, Scotland and Bermuda while Group B featured Kenya, the Netherlands and Canada.
Only the two finalists were supposed to qualify for the big tournament. But according to the new schedule , the third place holder in the tournament will also get to play in the T20 World cup next year. That addendum has become necessary that a third team will join the two finalists in next year’s tournament, providing the Zimbabwe cricket board ratifies Zimbabwe’s decision, taken during the ICC’s annual conference week, to step down from the 2009 Twenty20 World Championships.
The winner of the Belfast event will take the place of Zimbabwe in the main draw, in Group A, alongside India and Bangladesh. The losing finalist will take its place in Group B, alongside Pakistan and England and has the prospect of playing the opening match of the tournament, against the host team at Lord’s. The third-fourth spot match will decide the wild card entry team for the World Cup. A fifth and sixth place play-off – a second additional fixture to the original schedule – was to be played before being followed by the final.
Ireland beat favorites Kenya in the first semi final of the qualifying tournament at Stormontt in Belfast on Monday. The Irish team somehow laboured to a struggling four wicket win over Kenya. After taking the least happy road to the semi-finals after a being involved in a nail biting finish with Bermuda on Sunday, Ireland once again made hopeless mess of a simple and small target. Ireland bowled well to wipe out the second seeded Kenyans for sixty-seven in 17.2 overs. Andre Botha was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 3-20 and Cusack, Kevin O’Brien and Peter Conell chipping in with two wickets each.
For the Kenyans, it was always going to be a struggle as none of their batsmen really got going, but they gave the Irish a run for their money with consistent wickets. Finally though, Ireland managed to win with just two balls to spare. True to their form in this tournament, they did not make it easy on themselves. After winning a vital toss, they backed it up with a stunning display in the field that left them chasing just sixty-eight to win. But in the end it took them until the last over yet again to decide matters, Kevin O’Brien smashing a straight six off Tony Suji’s first ball to settle the issue.
It was another poor batting display by Ireland, but Simmons believes his side are still getting to grips with the format. Andre Botha top-scored for Ireland with 22 off 34 balls and shared a vital third-wicket stand of thirty-eight with Niall O’Brien after both openers had departed with the score on three. There were two wickets apiece for Peter Connell, Kevin O’Brien and Alex Cusack. Cracking catches from Cusack and Kyle McCallan and a run-out from skipper William Porterfield were the highlights of a fine fielding display.
It is interesting to note here that just as calls of popularising cricket are floating around, Ireland seems to be taking up to cricket quite rapidly. For the cricket team though its raining cash. A participation fee of €160,000 will bring smiles to the faces of the players as well as the administrators of the game in this country. The players are now guaranteed a cut of €45,000 between them, and that will go up to €65,000 if they can defeat the Dutch today and wrap up a fine couple of weeks for Phil Simmons’s side after they defended their European Championship crown. The Irish captain was quoted by The Irish Times,”A World Cup is a World Cup; I don’t care what kind it is. It’s brilliant to be there as a part of it,” he said. “I’m sure it’s going to be really exciting and you can see that on the faces of the guys in the dressing-room. Those that were at the last one know what happened and want to be a part again. It’s great to see.””
Netherlands, meanwhile, wrapped up their place in the final with a comfortable, five-wicket victory over Scotland in the other semi-final. Essex all-rounder Ryan ten Doeschate was the star performer, taking three wickets and hitting an undefeated 25 off 18 balls as the Dutch got home with two overs to spare. The Scots are likely to still take part in England next summer after they won the third-place play-off by nine wickets against Kenya.
Since rain has meant Ireland and Netherlands share the trophy, Scotland become the third in line beating Kenya in the third place playoffs with a possibility of a spot in the Twenty20 World Cup next year.
