Ireland went down to a thumping eight-wicket defeat to India in their opening game at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in New York yesterday.
Losing was no shock, but while the margin was unflattering, it was a game ruined by a pitch totally unsuited for use at a global showpiece.
When ICC announced to the world that they would playing on a drop-in pitch at Eisenhower Park, they neglected to mention that they would be dropping it in from one of the goalmouths in Ringsend Park.
The inconsistent bounce made batting a lottery and ruined any hope of Ireland competing once they had lost the toss.
Besides the danger to their wickets, there was considerable concern about life and limb, as a succession of batters on both sides shipped blows to hands, arms and helmets.
Ireland’s Harry Tector was rapped three times on the gloves, which give scant protection when the ball is coming in at 90mph, while Indian captain Rohit Sharma had to retire while batting after being hit on the shoulder and helmet.
In other jurisdictions, without a TV audience in the billions to consider, the umpires might have contemplated abandoning the game. Otherwise, the Nassau County International Stadium on Long Island is a superb venue.
Six towering grand stands accommodated over 25,000 Indian fans and a tiny enclave of green shirts that did their best to keep spirits up.
The celebrated Fionn Hand Appreciation Society, while devastated at the non-selection of its hero, was in fine voice, having adopted an alternative.
‘He’s big, he’s bad, he’s better than his dad, Harry Tector, Harry Tector’ they sang, cruelly dismissing the career of Tector senior on YMCA 2nd XI.
Being asked to bat first, Ireland were soon in trouble with both openers dismissed in Arshdeep Singh’s second over, Paul Stirling caught skying a heave, and Andrew Balbirnie bowled by a ball that nipped away.
Lorcan Tucker was deceived by some late movement, and Tector’s uncomfortable stay was ended when he misjudged a vicious Jasprit Bumrah bouncer and the ball lobbed off his gloves to Virat Kohli.
The innings soon became a procession, with four wickets falling in the space of six runs before Gareth Delany was joined by Josh Little at 50-8.
The pair sparkled, Delany launching two huge sixes to the longest boundary off Hardik Pandya, but Little was yorked by Jasprit Bumrah after adding 27.
Ben White helped Delany add another 20 before running him out on a free-hit. A score of 97-8 was never going to be enough and although White and Mark Adair took a wicket apiece, Rishabh Pant saw India home with 46 balls to spare.
Afterwards, coach Henrich Malan said the pitch was not an excuse but expressed his disappointment: ‘When you play this game you need a good surface, unfortunately that was not what we saw today. You want to see an equal contest — it’s debatable whether we saw that today.’
India captain Rohit Sharma dismissed his injury having hit 52 off 37 balls before retiring hurt with 21 needed after being struck on the upper arm by Little.
