Published: Feb 16, 2015, 03:16 AM (IST)
Edited: Feb 16, 2015, 03:28 AM (IST)
Ireland will hope history repeats itself when they face the West Indies in their ICC World Cup 2015 opener in Nelson on Monday. The last two editions of cricket’s global showpiece event have seen Ireland establish themselves as the game’s leading giantkillers, with the men in green defeating Pakistan in the Caribbean in 2007 before, on the back of Kevin O’Brien‘s fastest-ever World Cup century, they beat England in a memorable night in Bangalore four years later. Catch Live Scorecard and ball-by-ball commentary of the match here
But prior to those triumphs it was their win over the touring West Indies at Sion Mills back in 1969, where the visitors were skittled out for just 25, that remained Ireland’s best-known victory, reported AFP. Catch Live Updates of the match between Ireland and West Indies here
Much has changed for both sides since that extraordinary encounter, with the West Indies — who won the first two World Cups — dominating world cricket from the mid 1970s to the early 1990s before suffering a sharp decline while Ireland, no longer a team of happy-go-lucky amateurs, are pushing for elevation to Test status. ICC Cricket World Cup 2015: POINTS TABLE
Monday’s match promises to be a particularly memorable occasion for Ireland coach Phil Simmons, the former West Indies batsman.
With four teams from each of the two pools qualifying for the quarter-finals, Ireland know that if they can knock over at least one of the Test sides in their group as well as the United Arab Emirates, they could reach the knockout stages. ICC Cricket World Cup 2015: SCHEDULE & MATCH DETAILS
One longstanding feature of the West Indies’ protracted decline from their days at the summit of world cricket has been a series of increasingly bitter disputes between players and administrators.
Arguably the all-time low came as recently as October when a row over contractual terms led the West Indies to cut short their tour of India following a player boycott.
Amid the ensuing recriminations, all-rounders Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard, two of the West Indies’ leading one-day players, were left out of the World Cup squad, with the 23-year-old Jason Holder given the seemingly poisoned chalice of captaincy. ICC Cricket World Cup 2015: Complete Coverage
