CRICKET:THE MERITS of Ireland's victory in the World Twenty20 qualifier in Dubai on Saturday night can best be summed up by the resources they were missing by the time they made it to the final against Afghanistan.
Niall O’Brien, statistically Ireland’s best T20 batsman, missed the tournament after deciding to play in the Bangladesh Premier League, while all-rounders John Mooney and Alex Cusack both fell victim to the ridiculous workload put on the players in playing 11 games in 12 days, with both suffering hamstring injuries.
Despite those setbacks, and with key contributions across the squad, Phil Simmons’s side hammered Namibia by nine wickets in the key second qualifier final in the morning, before winning a tense, and at times tetchy, final against an Afghan side that beat them in the corresponding final at the Dubai International Stadium two years’ ago.
They were two outstanding team performances from a side that was forced to play two games more than the Afghans, who had qualified on Thursday.
There was fair sprinkling of individual brilliance too from the opening bowling of Trent Johnston and Boyd Rankin, Max Sorensen’s brilliant spell of two for eight in four overs against Namibia and including Kevin O’Brien’s happy knack of taking vital wickets, this time in the final.
In opening batsman Paul Stirling, though, Ireland had a trump card, as he continued his stunning exhibition of hitting in the play-offs to take the game away from both Namibia and Afghanistan in the first six overs of both chases.
The 21-year-old Middlesex right-hander clubbed 59 off 32 balls against the Africans as Ireland chased down a target of 95 in just 61 deliveries.
A stiffer target was posed in the decider after Afghanistan’s very own pint-sized pinch hitter Mohammad Shahzad had hit 77 off 57 balls to help his side post 152 for seven in their 20 overs having won the toss and batted.
When skipper William Porterfield was castled first ball by a ripping Dawlat Zadran inswinger the task looked bleak. But then again, Porterfield had gone first ball against England in the 50-over World Cup last March and look what happened.
Stirling certainly had no fear and proceeded to blast his first 50 runs off just 17 deliveries, the second-fastest in T20 international history after Yuvraj Singh’s 12-ball effort against England, before eventually falling after being caught on the deep square leg boundary attempting to hit a fourth six of the innings.
The Belfast native looked crestfallen with Ireland still 40 runs short of their target having holed out for 79. He shouldn’t have, as the fact that he took just 38 balls to get there put his side in the box seat.
Gary Wilson made another huge contribution in the middle order, hitting 32 off 39 balls, while Clontarf’s Andrew Poynter, a replacement player brought in following Mooney’s injury, hit an outrageous six and two fours, including the winning stroke in a knock of 23 off 17 balls to get Ireland home with seven balls to spare.
September in Sri Lanka was the prize after the Namibia game, with the win meaning Ireland will tackle Australia and West Indies in Group B, while Afghanistan face the tougher challenge of defending champions England and India, who won the inaugural staging in 2007.
