Three reasons why as English we’re pleased Ireland beat England

Ireland complete their remarkable fightback

By David Green

As we listened to Test Match Sofa on Wednesday in increasing dumbstruck horror as Ireland and England played out a cricket version of Stars In Their Eyes, part of us wanted Ireland to complete their remarkable fightback.

Despite the insults, the barbs and the merciless sledging that’s directed at England and its supporters, we still feel the same way today.

Here’s three reasons why:

1. Everyone loves it when David upsets Goliath

Ireland’s victory has electrified a fairly drab World Cup and made mockery of the ICC’s idiotic decision to cut the number of participants in the next tournament from 14 to 10. Whilst the minnows will normally get well beaten by the giants, just occasionally David will upset the applecart and slay Goliath. It’s called the magic of the cup – perhaps someone should tell the ICC.

2. Kevin O’Brien’s monumental innings

There have been some pretty special innings already in this World Cup from the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Andrew Strauss, but Kevin O’Brien’s IPL audition topped the lot. Ireland’s position looked hopeless at 111 for five, so O’Brien started off just having swing. Then he morphed into the bas***d son of Viv Richards and Garry Sobers to bring up the fastest hundred in World Cup history. Finally, he swiftly moved down the gears once he had reached his ton and Ireland just required singles to get over the line. Simply brilliant. So, why didn’t we include him in our Associate Composite XI then? Hmmm.

3. England got what they deserved

After a mighty fright against the Netherlands in their opening match, you’d have thought England would have learned. Not a bit of it. Woeful bowling, uninspiring captaincy and a collective fielding effort that would have made Kamran Akmal blush saw routine victory turned into the most ignominious of defeats. If England don’t improve rapidly with ball in hand and in the field, they won’t even make the quarter-finals.

(David Green is the brain behind the irreverent The Reverse Sweep blog and also writes for a number of cricket publications and sites such as World Cricket Watch. You can follow him on Twitter also @TheReverseSweep. David was a decent schoolboy and club cricketer (and scored his maiden 100 the same week that Sachin Tendulkar scored his first Test ton) but not good enough to fulfil his childhood dream of emulating Douglas Jardine by winning the Ashes in Australia and annoying the locals into the bargain. He now lives with his wife and two young children in the South of France and will one day write the definitive biography of Hedley Verity)