Ireland’s task at the T20 World Cup became a little clearer yesterday, as Canada’s defeat against Pakistan probably takes them out of the running, with only a game against India to come on Saturday.
Should Ireland beat the US on Friday and get ahead of them on net run rate, their game against Pakistan two days later will decide who reaches the Super Eights.
Having been defeated comfortably by great rivals India, Pakistan were determined to get their World Cup campaign back on course and while they did not set the world alight against the Canadians yesterday, they were never under serious threat of back-to-back losses.
Canada impressed with their batting against Ireland but were smothered yesterday by the Pakistan bowlers and were only able to post a total of 107.
And, while Pakistan had a few wobbles along the way, they were able to pick off the target without too much fuss.
Ireland lead fast-bowling coach Ryan Eagleson was back working with his charges yesterday after a short break after the New
York leg of the tournament as the squad seek to restore some pride following a desperately disappointing start.
The Carrickfergus man explained what the coaching group had been up to: ‘We reflected on a very disappointing result against Canada. A few of the guys had a few days off. We just chilled out down here in hot and humid Florida for a few days but we’re ready to get back on the horse this week and looking forward to playing the USA.’
A lot has been said about the pitches in the US from a batter’s perspective, but what does a bowling guru say about it from a bowler’s perspective?
‘If you look at all the games in New
York they’ve all been low-scoring affairs,’ says Eagleson. ‘From a bowling point of view, it’s the old adage “line and length” if you look at all the wickets taken it has been from balls pitched back of length, that 6-8 metre length we talk about a lot, and aggressive use of the short ball. You can see there’s been movement on offer with the new ball, and there was a lot of movement up and down and sideways which caused a lot of the batters problems.’
Ireland’s schedule sees them twice play two games two days apart. How does the coaching group cope in a tournament situation with the games coming thick and fast?
The 49-year-old ex-Derbyshire fast bowler explains: ‘We do a lot of planning before the games on our opposition and try to put that in place as much as possible. It’s just constant conversations with the guys, we’ve got to be on the money in everything we do and replicate it on the pitch.
‘So, when we get into our practice days it’s really about trying to replicate that match intensity, and one-to-one conversations with the bowlers about what we’re trying to do in their particular facet of the game.’
Eagleson, who won 65 caps for Ireland, is focused on Friday’s encounter in Lauderhill with the host nation. Having played a warm-up game in Lauderhill against Sri Lanka, were there any lessons from that that will be useful this weekend?
‘Yeah, that was a low scoring game, they got about 160; it looked a pretty good surface with a bit of uneven bounce. So, we had a session with the guys after and we talked about what we learnt from that and how we can put it into place.
‘The US have obviously got off to a great start. They look a very good side, as we saw in their super over win against Pakistan.
‘We’ll do all our homework on the USA batters our analyst Scott Irvine is excellent; he collects all the data on all their batters and what are their strong areas.
‘But there comes a point where we’ve got to do what we do and concentrate on what we do best as a bowling unit. Conditions in Florida might be a bit different from how they were in New York, so we’ll assess those conditions when we get a good look at the ground and then it’s about putting the plans in place.
‘But ultimately it’s about the guys going out on the day and doing what they can do best.’
