Canada, Ireland search for first points with focus on New York pitch

Match details

Canada vs Ireland
June 7, New York, 10.30am local, 2.30pm GMT, 8.00pm IST

Big picture – All eyes on New York pitch

The fast bowlers have so far held sway here, having picked up 18 of the 26 wickets to fall while going at an economy rate of 5.46. Sri Lanka were bowled out for 77 here on June 3 and South Africa took 16.2 overs to chase that down. On Wednesday, India rolled out Ireland for 96 and while their chase was slightly more comfortable, Rohit Sharma retired hurt after being struck on the upper arm, while Rishabh Pant was also hit on his elbow and required some attention.

Just two days later, as Ireland gear up to play another fixture in New York against Canada, the build-up has entirely centred around the pitch.

“It’s tough to adjust when you don’t know what you have to adjust to,” Ireland head coach Heinrich Malan said after their eight-wicket loss against India. “You’ve got to take into account that when you play the game you need a really good surface or as good as surfaces you can get and unfortunately what we’ve seen over the last couple of games just doesn’t necessarily live up to that. So hopefully, over the next day or so it can hopefully flatten out a little bit and we can see some good cricket come Friday.”

It is an important game for both Canada and Ireland, who have suffered losses in their opening games. Another loss here and the road to Super Eights becomes challenging. Canada, who played their opening fixture in Dallas where they went down to USA in a high-scoring clash, haven’t been in great T20I form. They have lost each of their last five T20Is, and all the pitch talk here might not bode well for their confidence.

“This wicket is a bit, kind of, what you can say, a tricky one. So you cannot play some of the T20 shots. So you have to play conventional cricket. And what I see, it’s playing on the up, it’s a little bit difficult than Dallas,” Canada batter Navneet Dhaliwal, who scored a 44-ball 61 against USA, said. “It’s a lot of lateral movement so there’s a lot of swing comparatively to Dallas so if you kind of want to basically hit the good-length balls it’s a bit difficult.”

The Canada-Ireland fixture will likely take place on pitch no. 4, the same one that hosted the India-Ireland clash and the warm-up game between India and Bangladesh. In addition to the surface, the slow, sand-based outfield has also not helped the batters in any way. Which will be the first team to cross the 100-mark in New York?

Form guide

Canada LLLLL (last five completed T20Is, most recent first)
Ireland LWWWL

In the spotlight – Dilon Heyliger and Mark Adair

Team news

Both teams might want to go pace-heavy on this surface. Offspinner Nikhil Dutta went for 41 runs in 2.4 overs in Canada’s opening game, so there is a chance they could bring in left-arm fast bowler Rishiv Joshi to boost their pace-bowling resources.

Canada (probable XI): 1 Aaron Johnson, 2 Navneet Dhaliwal, 3 Pargat Singh, 4 Nicholas Kirton, 5 Shreyas Movva (wk), 6 Dilpreet Bajwa, 7 Saad Bin Zafar (capt), 8 Dilon Heyliger, 9 Nikhil Dutta/Rishiv Joshi, 10 Kaleem Sana, 11 Jeremy Gordon.

There was visible bruising on Harry Tector’s right thumb after he was struck by a rip-roaring Jasprit Bumrah bouncer. Ireland batting coach Gary Wilson said Tector seemed fine after an initial inspection, but a call on his availability for the Canada clash would be taken a bit later. If he does not recover in time, Ireland might bring Ross Adair into the mix.

Ireland (probable XI): 1 Paul Stirling (capt), 2 Andy Balbirnie, 3 Lorcan Tucker (wk), 4 Harry Tector/Ross Adair, 5 Curtis Campher, 6 George Dockrell, 7 Gareth Delany, 8 Mark Adair, 9 Barry McCarthy, 10 Josh Little, 11 Ben White.

Pitch and conditions

It’s another early-morning start in New York and the weather looks good for a game of cricket. The temperature is likely to hover around the 29-degree (Celsius) mark. Expect it to be a little humid as well.

Stats and trivia

Quotes

“We were probably a little bit off with our lengths with the ball, but it was going to be very difficult to defend 96. I think very rarely do you see a team get rolled and then the next innings is also very low. Speaking to [India head coach] Rahul Dravid after the game, he said that they were able to manage that so well because they knew they only had to get 96, but he also said if the shoe was in the other foot, it could have been a different story.”
Gary Wilson feels the toss could be important in New York

“Drop-in wickets take time to settle down. I think normally it takes around a year or so. It’s not ideal – I think it’s a bit early, but still, it’s a challenge. Like the par for Dallas is what, 180-190, and par for here is 120-130. It’s a different wicket and a different kind of competition, you can say. It’s exciting, basically.”
Navneet Dhaliwal does not see anything wrong with the New York pitch