Irish Cricket 2007

[Sheridan]

That's great news. They're showing Ireland vs. South Africa the next day too, according to that schedule.

Unfortunately, André Botha will miss the series due to an elbow injury. He might be back in time for the quadrangular tournament against West Indies, Netherlands and Scotland in July.

[TheBoss]

That is great !

Still will get hammered though as a result of previous performances

[Poor Student]

Will Ireland be able to call up the likes of Rankin and Morgan for those internationals?

[Sheridan]

Yeah, the counties have to release them for ODIs. Rankin's injured, though, he's unlikely to feature until July.

[onceahoop]

I think our results reflect the fact that we've lost some of our best players to the counties plus the fact that we have to hire mercenaries who are guaranteed their money and also there has to be a reaction to the world cup as these palyers are basically amatures. Listened to a bit of Trent Johnston on RTE Sport on Radio 1 on Saturday. He's not happy with the results but feels we're doing a bit of rebuilding. Mentioned Alex Cusack amongst others.

[TheBoss]

Are these players proving they have a future with the team on a regular basis ?

[Sheridan]

No play as yet at Stormont in today's wooden spoon fixture against Glamorgan. Pitch inspection at 1.40 p.m. This tournament has been a washout in every sense.

[osarusan]

I have a question for a knowledgeable cricket fan.............

In a run out, how is it decided which batsman has been runout?

I know in some cases it is obvious, as there is one batsman at the other end and the other batsman diving for the crease, and just being runout........ but there are other cases where one batsman runs and the other does not, and both of them are at the end where the runout happens......and other cases, usually on the last ball of an innings, where the batsman try and run regardless, but usually haven't gone far before the stumping happens - who is "out" - the batsman closest to the ball, or the batsman who was running toward that end?

[Sheridan]

The batsman closest to the broken wicket at the time of impact is out. I've never witnessed any scenario in which this was ambiguous, to be honest. If one man runs and the other doesn't (as sometimes happens when a superior batsman is trying to preserve his wicket, for example during the Ireland-Zimbabwe World Cup game) the runner is given out.

[osarusan]

Cheers. here is an ambiguous one for you.

[Sheridan]

That's a very interesting example, in the end there's no ambiguity because Morton's safe (bat grounded) and Chanderpaul isn't, but it clarifies the tiebreaking method applied when two batsman occupy the same crease (first come, first served.)

[osarusan]

If Chanderpaul had never left his crease, Morton would have been given out? As the runner?

[Sheridan]

Yep. Once he'd vacated the safe haven of his crease, "ownership" was up for grabs and Morton got there first.

[Sheridan]

Ireland vs. Glamorgan abandoned due to rain. Ireland finish bottom of Friends Provident South Conference with three points (all from rain abandonments.)

[TheBoss]

There was something that confused me the other week when watching the Windies v England, the commentators were mentioning that this player was a ''Night Watch Man'', what exactly is that ?

[Dodge]

If a batsman gets out with half an hour (or similar) to play at tne end of the day, some teams will put out a realtively poor batsman in order to keep their main batsman fresh to play the next morning (without having to play in poor light, no warm up etc etc)

It backfred on England a couple of years ago when they brought in Matthew Hoggard as Nigthwatchman but he was out first ball with a shockingly wild swing.

[Sheridan]

A night-watchman is a tailend batsman (usually a "dead bat" with a relatively sound defensive technique) promoted up the order and sent out to bat when a wicket falls shortly before close of play, with the intention of seeing out the remaining overs before stumps are called. This is done to prevent the next scheduled recognised batsman from having to make two cold starts (one in fading evening light against adrenalised bowlers, the other early the next morning) by replacing him with a more expendable tailender.

Ideally, the night-watchman should block his way through to close of play and then hit out or get out on the following morning to make way for a recognised batsman. Jason Gillespie bucked the trend by scoring a double century as a night-watchman for Australia against Bangladesh last year.

[TheBoss]

Cheers for that !

[OwlsFan]

Off to Chester Le Street in Durham to see a "test match" for the first time this weekend. Booked in for the Saturday session but the forecast is for thunderstorms The wife has volunteered to come along. I am expecting a lot of questions during the day

[Sheridan]

Ireland have named a drastically depleted squad for the ODIs against India and South Africa. Botha, Rankin and Langford-Smith are ruled out by injury, Jeremy Bray has asked not to be considered, Peter Gillespie has retired from international cricket and Eoin Morgan, shamefully, made himself unavailable in order to play Twenty20 for Middlesex.

The squad is therefore as follows.

Trent Johnston (Railway Union) Captain
Kenny Carroll (Railway Union)
Alex Cusack (Clontarf)
Thinus Fourie (Merrion)
Dominick Joyce (Merrion)
Gary Kidd (Waringstown)
Kyle McCallan (Waringstown)
Kevin O'Brien (Railway Union)
Niall O'Brien (Northants)
William Porterfield (Rush)
Roger Whelan (Railway Union)
Andrew White (Instonians)
Gary Wilson (Surrey)