(Cricket news) The second one-day international at Sabina Park in Kingston saw Ireland level the ODI series 1-1 after a comfortable five wicket victory over the West Indies. The result came largely due to the heroics of Andy McBrine and Harry Tector at a cricket ground where the Irish fans have enjoyed many happy memories over the years.
McBrine’s bowling was inspiring as he claimed four wickets and scored 35 runs with the bat to help Ireland secure the win. Tector continued his red-hot form in the 50 over format, hitting his sixth ODI half-century in nine innings. His 54* was an almost perfect performance. It was evident that Ireland’s batters had learnt their lessons from the first ODI. Tector controlled the innings, coming to bat at 60-2 and showed great maturity in the way he played.
Ireland’s captain Andrew Balbirnie had been sidelined due to a COVID-19 infection and stand-in captain Paul Stirling won the toss and elected to bat. Stirling has already captained six T20 Internationals but it was the first time he was captaining an ODI match. Three early wickets fell with two of them being overturned on review after being given not out. Craig Young claimed 3-12 in his first 4 over spells and nicked off Shari Hope (17), Justin Greaves (10 and Nicholas Poorna (1).
After a steady 48 run stand between Shamarh Brooks and Royston Chase, Stirling took a spectacular catch off Chase from Andy McBrine’s delivery. In the last match, Ireland had West Indies at 62-4 but the hosts recovered to score 269 runs. The Irish team was adamant of not repeating history once again. Kieron Pollard could not replicate his 69 from the last match as off-spinner McBrine switched over-the-wicket and claimed Pollard for just 1 run. Pollard fell with the score on 93-5 and was followed by all-rounder Jason Holder who was nicked off Josh Little for three runs.
Stirling was then rewarded with Brooks’ wicket at 43 when he was trapped for LBW but Romario Shepherd (50 off 41 balls) and Odean Smith (49 off 19 balls) scored some late runs for a ninth wicket stand of 58 from 27 balls. The partnership carried West Indies beyond 200 and gave their side a good chance on a pitch that was looking good for batting. West Indies scored a total of 229 runs with a mammoth 27 wides contributing to the score line. McBrine’s 4-29 was his second-best bowling figures in ODI cricket and moved him into fifth place in the all-time ODI wicket-taking list for Ireland.
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Ireland’s batting response was positive with Stirling (21) and Porterfield (26) scoring 37 runs in 30 balls before Stirling edged it to Holder at first slip. In this innings Stirling became the first Irish batter to score 5,000 ODI runs. Porterfield maintained his aggressive start, scoring three boundaries and his dismissal on the last ball of the 10th over left Ireland at 60-2. However, McBrine and Tector stabilised the innings. Curtis Campher eventually joined Tector to put on 53 runs with Tector scoring 37 from the partnership before Campher was bowled by Hosein. Tector scored his sixth ODI half-century off 61 balls before rain intervened. After play resumed, the adjusted target was 168 runs which meant Ireland needed 11 runs from 28 balls. They achieved the score comfortably with Tector scoring 54*
Player of the Match, Andy McBrine said: “This means a lot to us. The last week has been ridiculous, but we stuck at it, we stuck together as a group and showed we’ve got a fighting spirit left in us.”
After the match, Stirling said: “It means a lot – we’re delighted with how the lads responded, coming from a tough loss the other day where we thought we were really in the game a lot of the time, and to come and put on a performance like this after the off-field activities that have gone on. We’re delighted to get the win today, we really are. Craig Young is bowling really well – he used to be given the new ball not so long ago, but he’s been given a different task to come in when it’s tougher as a bowler usually. He still gets a lot out of the wicket – the wicket that he got bowled today nipped a lot. When he gets it right he’s fantastic for us.
“Harry, I can’t say high enough praise for him – he’s been in world class form. He keeps backing up performance after performance, and that’s all we can ask. We’ve got a small-enough pool of players, so when people like that stand up like that at a young age – he’s only going to get better and better. I really look forward to seeing where he’s at in five years’ time. Look, it’s consistency is all that we ask from our lads, we have struggled with that in the past, but we’ve got a real opportunity here to make our stamp on the series and win it. There’s no doubt we got the best end of the stick twice with winning the toss – so we’ll go away now, we’ve a few things to think on – we’re not the finished article, because if it is then we’re in trouble. The last 10 overs in our bowling innings we can hopefully do a lot better – if we make that better today, then we make the run chase even easier. There’s a lot to improve on, but that makes it exciting as well.”
The two sides will face each other for the third World Cup Super League match on Sunday at Sabina Park.
MATCH SUMMARY
West Indies Men v Ireland Men, 2nd ODI, Sabina Park, Jamaica, 13 January 2022
West Indies 229 (48 overs: R Shepherd 50, O Smith 46; A McBrine 4-36, C Young 3-42)
Ireland 168-5 (32.3 overs: H Tector 54*, A McBrine 35; A Hosein 2-51)
Ireland won by 5 wickets
