Kevin O’Brien celebrates his century against England
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Kevin O’Brien blitz floors England
By Suneer Chowdhary
Bengaluru: Mar 2, 2011
At the half-way stage, England would have thought that give or take a few runs, the game was theirs for the taking. A cakewalk. Much like how India did against them. For most part of the Irish innings, it seemed so too.
Just when they thought that they had it by the scruff of the neck, Ireland came back to bite them hard. And then, Kevin O’Brien bludgeoned his way through to an innings that would elicit inevitable comparisons with Canadian John Davison from the 2003 World Cup. Or Ryan ten Doeschate this year. Or even a concoction of Virender Sehwag and Vivian Richards at their best.
It was a pity then that the atmosphere was not even half as surreal as for the India-England encounter.
O’Brien came to the crease with Ireland having lost three wickets in a clatter and five in all. For 111. The target was as distant as Ireland from Bangalore. Or even Mars. A quickfire 30 should have sufficed; made the disappointed Irish fans happier and something to cherish. England would have gone home at the top of the table. Quick end to game too.
The quickfire 30 came and went. So did the 50. 75 was surpassed in a jiffy and after a dropped catch by Andrew Strauss – one of the many they have dropped in this tournament – O’Brien had got to his first ever World Cup century and the fastest in the tournament’s history. More vitally, the century came off only 50 balls, had six sixes and a total of 12 boundaries to go with it.
No bowler had been spared. Graeme Swann and Michael Yardy had been compelled to bowl medium-pace. Stuart Broad tried his best at the off-cutters. Nothing worked.
England had panicked by then. The asking-rate which had hovered at around nine from the start of his innings dipped to almost seven. O’Brien was dropped. So was Alex Cussack. There were overthrows. And the obvious misfields.
If one were to count the number of chances that England had let go off in this tournament so far, they would probably give a club-side a run for their money. Their best efforts saw the run-outs of Cussack and O’Brien but by then, Ireland had coasted towards what seemed to be an inevitable win.
England were lucky to win the toss and bat first on a track that would have afforded nothing for most bowling attacks around the world. The Irish bowling is not from the top draw and with the injury to their best bowler from the previous game, Andre Botha, it never looked like the English batsmen would be stoppable. Not till the start of the slog overs anyway.
After Andrew Strauss had scored 34 in a 91-run stand and departed and then had Kevin Pietersen (59 off 50) being dismissed after missing yet another century, England were 111/2 in the 17th Over.
It was then, the run-scoring machine called Jonathon Trott and the under-achiever Ian Bell got together and forged a good partnership. It had shades of the Strauss-Bell stand from the India game and the similarity did not end with the end of the stand. Once the two were dismissed, for 92 and 81 respectively, the rest of the side capitulated, in a manner not so dissimilar from the manner in which they had against India.
Only 49 came off the last seven overs of the innings, one of the reasons why the game turned the manner in which it did. Apart from the bludgeoning from the younger O’Brien.
Brief scores: England 327/8 in 50 overs (Jonathon Trott 92, Ian Bell 81; John Mooney 4 for 63, Trent Johnston 2 for 58) lost to Ireland 329/7 in 49.1 overs (Kevin O’Brien 113, Alex Cussack 47; Graeme Swann 3 for 47, James Anderson 1 for 49)
(Suneer is a Mumbai-based cricket writer and can be contacted at suneerchowdhary@gmail.com and Tweets here @suneerchowdhary)
By Suneer Chowdhary
Bengaluru: Mar 2, 2011
At the half-way stage, England would have thought that give or take a few runs, the game was theirs for the taking. A cakewalk. Much like how India did against them. For most part of the Irish innings, it seemed so too.
Just when they thought that they had it by the scruff of the neck, Ireland came back to bite them hard. And then, Kevin O’Brien bludgeoned his way through to an innings that would elicit inevitable comparisons with Canadian John Davison from the 2003 World Cup. Or Ryan ten Doeschate this year. Or even a concoction of Virender Sehwag and Vivian Richards at their best.
It was a pity then that the atmosphere was not even half as surreal as for the India-England encounter.
O’Brien came to the crease with Ireland having lost three wickets in a clatter and five in all. For 111. The target was as distant as Ireland from Bangalore. Or even Mars. A quickfire 30 should have sufficed; made the disappointed Irish fans happier and something to cherish. England would have gone home at the top of the table. Quick end to game too.
The quickfire 30 came and went. So did the 50. 75 was surpassed in a jiffy and after a dropped catch by Andrew Strauss – one of the many they have dropped in this tournament – O’Brien had got to his first ever World Cup century and the fastest in the tournament’s history. More vitally, the century came off only 50 balls, had six sixes and a total of 12 boundaries to go with it.
No bowler had been spared. Graeme Swann and Michael Yardy had been compelled to bowl medium-pace. Stuart Broad tried his best at the off-cutters. Nothing worked.
England had panicked by then. The asking-rate which had hovered at around nine from the start of his innings dipped to almost seven. O’Brien was dropped. So was Alex Cussack. There were overthrows. And the obvious misfields.
If one were to count the number of chances that England had let go off in this tournament so far, they would probably give a club-side a run for their money. Their best efforts saw the run-outs of Cussack and O’Brien but by then, Ireland had coasted towards what seemed to be an inevitable win.
England were lucky to win the toss and bat first on a track that would have afforded nothing for most bowling attacks around the world. The Irish bowling is not from the top draw and with the injury to their best bowler from the previous game, Andre Botha, it never looked like the English batsmen would be stoppable. Not till the start of the slog overs anyway.
After Andrew Strauss had scored 34 in a 91-run stand and departed and then had Kevin Pietersen (59 off 50) being dismissed after missing yet another century, England were 111/2 in the 17th Over.
It was then, the run-scoring machine called Jonathon Trott and the under-achiever Ian Bell got together and forged a good partnership. It had shades of the Strauss-Bell stand from the India game and the similarity did not end with the end of the stand. Once the two were dismissed, for 92 and 81 respectively, the rest of the side capitulated, in a manner not so dissimilar from the manner in which they had against India.
Only 49 came off the last seven overs of the innings, one of the reasons why the game turned the manner in which it did. Apart from the bludgeoning from the younger O’Brien.
Brief Scores: England 327/8 in 50 overs (Jonathon Trott 92, Ian Bell 81; John Mooney 4 for 63, Trent Johnston 2 for 58) lost to Ireland 329/7 in 49.1 overs (Kevin O’Brien 113, Alex Cussack 47; Graeme Swann 3 for 47, James Anderson 1 for 49)
Man of the Match: Kevin O’Brien
(Suneer is a Mumbai-based cricket writer and can be contacted at suneerchowdhary@gmail.com and Tweets here @suneerchowdhary)
