Season 47 NAT One Day Division 2 Tour 1 Summaries
West Indies vs Ireland
How we survived Division 2, barely
In a knockout game against the Irish, survival in division 2 was on the line. The pitch was a batting paradise, and West Indian Captain Imtiaz Whybrew chose to bat first on a hard deck and under clouds. The openers started the innings off well, before Winston Nunes departed at 74 runs, and Anthony followed 17 runs later. Colin Eugene found the seamers unsettling, and finally gave off an edge to a bouncer, and Melford Griffith could not continue his great form, as he was out for a first-ball duck. Going into drinks, Ireland had a certain advantage having gotten 4 scalps for 116. Martin Marshall did some reparations alongside Imtiaz Whybrew, but both of them threw away their starts and West Indies were 162/6. Thus far, the batting performance had been a game of passing the baton, as nobody really stood up. The onus was on the all-rounders now. Aaron Munilall on his first series, and Troy Joseph was on his second, and both of them combined to produce magic. Their partnership, which had Aaron Munilall getting a half-century, carried West Indies to 275 in 50 overs.
The chase began with 2 quick wickets for West Indies. The Irish responded well and still managed 46 from the powerplay. Then Carl Beresford got the first of his five scalps of the night to break off that partnership. Troy Joseph added the pressure on Ireland by grabbing 2 more wickets in quick succession. At 79/5, the Irish hadn't given up, they had started competing in the chase just then. John Molony and Adam Finnegan repeated the Sri Lankan heroics from last night, getting the team to 238 with the sixth-wicket stand. Carl Beresford brought West Indies some relief yet again, as he got 2 wickets, and, most importantly, got rid of Adam Finnegan. Ireland had John Molony and Hugh O'Dwyer recuperate the innings, before Carl Beresford got rid of Molony and their number 10 Andrew O'Reilly to finish his 5-fer. Ireland were 257/9, and they needed 19 more to win off of 4 overs. You'd think the game is done there, and most days you'd be right, but Hugh O'Dwyer had other plans.
Off the next 17 balls, Hugh O'Dwyer played 12 of them, and number 11 Frank Sheehan played 5. Wilfred Austin had bowled 5 balls off Over 49 to Hugh O'Dwyer, and he had brought them to 269, 7 runs from the target. Austin had one ball to bowl to the tailender, and he threw everything at it. And I mean everything. He bowled the nastiest and quickest of bouncers, that made Sheehan fall over his stumps and get out hit wicket. The West Indian camps were gutted after yesterday's loss, and couldn't take one more of the same, and whilst the Irish did have unfortunate luck there and would have to bow down to Division 3 because of six runs, the game was amongst the classics and would be cherished.
Other Results in Division 2
Australia beat United Arab Emirates by 17 runs
Sri Lanka beat Netherlands by 95 runs
Implications of the Results
West Indies' win has pushed Ireland to Division 3 as United Arab Emirates' partner. Sri Lanka's win against the Dutch and the Aussies beating the Emiratis tied all 3 teams on 16 points. Australia lost the promotion on net run rate due to a massive loss to Netherlands on Day 4 as the Lankans and the Dutch head to Division 1.
Player of the Tour
The league had quite a few players shine out for West Indies. Melford Griffith's century game 1 and his fifty game 4 were both highlight-reel material, but his first ball duck might miss out on that. Colin Eugene's innings won us game 2, and game 3 had debutant Jason Hislop grab 5 wickets in an innings. Game 4 had Martin Marshall get a ton, and Hubert Newton's first fifty, and game 5 had Aaron Munilall play one of the most heroic innings. But the player of the tour had to be
Carl Beresford, ending up with 11 wickets across the tour. He grabbed a 4-wicket haul game 1 and won the game with 4-wicket final spell, in a 5-fer in the final game. Touring without Curtly Ambrose, Carl Beresford rose to the occasion and has given performances way above his paycheck this tour.
Yet again, the West Indian Management would like to thank all the clubs for loaning their players for the week. The few lads who did not get chances this tour week will feature in a
friendly tomorrow at 0800 FTP Time.
The next tour is a Twenty-20 International Tour beginning April 12, until then, cheer on for the West Indies U20 side in their tour beginning March 29 at 1500 FTP Time
here.