Ireland walked out to compete in a T20 World Cup but soon had their Test status challenged
“Has the blue team won?” asked a sun-kissed security person behind the boundary hoardings during the innings interval.
“Not yet”, I replied.
“Oh! Judging by the way the blue fans have celebrated, I thought it was over”
“Yeah, because they are way ahead”
“How do you they know that?”
“Because they have to get only 97 runs…points”, I quickly corrected to draw a baseball parallel. “Teams usually get more than 160”
“Ohh, they must be having a good defence then. And once they cross that, will the green ones go again?”
“Nope, it will be over”
***
Expecting Ireland, who had lost all their seven T20Is to India before the one on June 5th, to pip the behemoths would have been foolhardy. But the Indian diaspora of the United States, who would have waited for the first glimpse of their stars in their own country, were misled into believing that they had signed up for a stroke-filled T20 game.
Instead, it felt like a morning session of a Test match. That too under overcast conditions on a lively wicket. And unlike in a Test, where they could have gotten their money’s worth by watching India’s superstar batters take a mammoth first-innings lead, the game was done in 74 balls after India began batting.
T20 cricket is seen as cricket’s gateway to unchartered territories. The US market is regarded as the next major step towards globalising the sport. The superstars of Indian cricket are seen as the facilitators. Whatever the US natives know about cricket is from Hasan Minhaj. It is only now that they are getting acquainted with the fact that cricket can also be of the same duration as a ball game. But cricket’s entry into New York so far has been diluted because of the most basic ingredient and the one that separates it from baseball the most: the quality of the pitch.
The best cricket pitches are those that go unnoticed in the game’s discourse. But cricket pitches have occupied an awful lot of headspace for a few months now. In complete contrast to the IPL just a fortnight ago, the balance has lopsidedly shifted in the bowler’s favour. Two games into the makeshift Nassau Cricket Stadium, a team is yet to register a three-figure mark.
Having lost a decisive toss, Ireland were asked to bat first. Arshdeep Singh swung the new-ball, Mohammed Siraj seamed it, Jasprit Bumrah was just Jasprit Bumrah. Even Hardik Pandya bowled his full quota in one go and never made it seem like his bowling form ever went away. India’s four-man pace attack broke Ireland’s batting line-up, figuratively and literally.
Paul Stirling died by the sword, adamant to use his feet on every ball. Others fell, refusing to use their feet at all. It was only after the contest became a foregone conclusion that Gareth Delany and Josh Little threw their bat around to delay the inevitable.
When it was their turn to bowl, Ireland’s pacers could not land the ball at a good length as frequently as the Indians did. But with only 96 to defend, could they be blamed for trying too hard for the glory ball?
In what has been a logistical nightmare for the organisers, the World Cup so far has been tough on a few teams. Along with delayed arrivals and lost luggage, alien conditions have affected a few teams unequally. While India had a chance to get used to the venue in New York during their warm-up game against Bangladesh, Ireland were dealt a rough hand in an already lopsided battle as they walked inside the stadium for the first time ever on the day of their fixture against India.
“We tried to do as much homework as we could even though we weren’t at the ground or playing on the surface. Today was the first time our players saw the ground. The first time we took catches today was when the guys were warming up”, explained a pensive Heinrich Malan, Ireland’s head coach, after the game.
What should also be taken in context here is the bigger battle for smaller teams like Ireland. The battle for survival. A cricket World Cup expanded for the first time in a decade. Never before did the T20 World Cup have 20 teams directly into the main event. If not victories against the big boys, the least the lower-ranked teams would wish for is a fight that makes their presence felt and their futures secured.
But walking out to compete in a T20 World Cup, Ireland soon had their Test status challenged. This comes at a time when Ireland cricket is struggling to figure out their best format. Lagging in ODIs, they nearly lost to Italy in the Europe qualifiers.
“Mike Tyson said any game plan change [when’ you get punched in the face. We had to change our game plan a couple of times and unfortunately it just didn’t go the way we wanted it to work out today”, quipped Malan.
“I think we just want to see good cricket, don’t we? It’s the pinnacle of our event and it doesn’t have to be 200 play all the time, it just needs to be an equal contest and I think if you look at today, it is debatable where that was”
At the other hand of the spectrum were India, with their squad pretty much similar to what they are likely to dish out for the five Tests in Australia later this year, were far better prepared for what awaited them.
After Rohit Sharma lauded the “Test” experience of their bowling attack post-match, the batting coach, Vikram Rathour, expressed calmness about the preparedness of the squad for challenging conditions ahead. We have enough good batters who can manage to bat well on any kind of surface. I think that has been our strength for many many years”.
***
My buddy by the boundary hoardings listened on when I explained him after a couple of fours from Rohit’s bat that everytime the ball crosses the rope on a bounce, it fetches four points. It is a six if it crosses directly.
“They are gonna thrash them”, he chuckled after Rohit thumped a six down the ground. If only I had the time to tell him there is way more to cricket than what meets the eye.