Ireland Cricket Team : For the past few decades, Cricket was always been quoted as a sport mostly Dominated by Major Cricketing powers like India, England, Australia and so on and its quite recently that few of the minnows like Afghanistan, Ireland, Scotland has really challenged the Supremacy of the “Big Boys of Cricket”. Though all these challenges have been occasional, it has shown the world that all these “Newbie” of World cricket holds enough resilience to take over the world cricket in the coming times. One of the names amongst the bunch is Ireland Cricket which has started to make its mark on World’s Cricketing Landscape.
The origin of Cricket in Ireland
Not a lot of people know that Ireland started playing cricket years before than many current Major Cricketing nations. The Inception of Cricket in Ireland took place during the early 19th century and it was generally been played in the famous towns Kilkenny and Ballinasloe in the first few years. The game then outreached to several other places within the country and it was by 1855 only when the Irish team got to play its first match as a National team against the England team in Dublin.
There were a number of Irish teams which toured countries like USA, Canada and in the late 19th century but they get to play their first match with a First class status in 1902 only against an English county team which also included legendary player Sir W.G. Grace.
The Dark era before the 90s
Even though cricket found its way in Ireland way back in the 19th century, the period after that didn’t bring any milestone in Irish cricketing history. Although they defeated South African team in 1904 which was also their first win against a Test playing nation, the team didn’t get to play with much exposure to International cricket mainly due to the World wars. This was the only reason that the Irish team was mostly playing with the other Non-test nations like Scotland, Srilanka, and the Netherlands until the 90s.
The Revival of Irish Cricket
It was by the year 1993 when Ireland joined ICC as an associate member and got reintroduced to the World of International cricket. They played in the ICC trophy in 1994 and finished seventh in the whole tournament while again losing to Scotland in the next edition of the same championship which also saw them missing a spot in the 1999 world cup.
Finally, Ireland Cricket team was able to secure a spot in the 2007 world cup after they ended as runners up in the 2005 ICC trophy being the host of the Tournament. It was the same time when Ireland cricket got the ODI status along with all the required Monetary Assistance from the ICC for development of cricket within their Territory.
Ireland Cricket team played its first ODI match against the England cricket team in Belfast in 2006 in front of their home crowd. Though England was able to defeat Ireland by 38 runs, their effort has been applauded by everyone in the Cricket fraternity along with England captain, Andrew Strauss.
Achieving the Test status in 2007
Cricket started to pave its ways into the Irish territory once Ireland cricket team got the long awaited ODI status from ICC. Still, most of its players were switching to English country teams to play test cricket while using the residency rules. That’s where the chief executive of the Ireland cricket at that time, Warren Deutrom, planned to get ahead with country’s ambitions to achieve Test status.
Deutrom set p[redefined goals to the country’s Cricket system and emphasize on making it to the Test level by ensuring more and more people coming on board to revive Country’s Cricketing ambitions down the line. The Journey wasn’t that easy for Ireland and they were refused the Test status grants a number of times even after receiving support from a number of Cricketing legends like Jason Gillespie and Michael holding following their famous victory over West Indies in World cup 2015.
Finally, the ICC awarded Ireland cricket team with Test status on 22 June 2017 along with another Associate nation Afghanistan and this was something which started a revolution in Ireland’s Cricketing Arena.
Famous Victories for Ireland Cricket team
Ireland vs Pakistan, world cup 2007
It was during the world cup 2007 when Ireland made everyone noticed their presence e amongst other major cricketing powers when they knocked out Pakistan from the World cup by defeating them with 3 wickets. Surprisingly Pakistani team was playing along with some of the big names like Inzamam ul haq and Younis Khan and were still bundled out for a mere 132 on the Score board.
Ireland vs. England, world cup 2011
What was quoted as the battle between the two brothers or Neighbors, no one ever expected the Mighty English team to go down against the Ireland cricket team in a world cup match. It was that day in 2011 in Bengaluru when English team batted first and posted a big total of 327 runs on board for the loss of 8 wickets.
Ireland, even after losing 5 wickets for a mere 111, went on to manage the victory amidst the magnificent batting performance by Kevin O’ Brian who scores a Blistering century in just 50 balls and went on to post a new record of fastest World cup century.
Ireland vs. West Indies, World cup 2015
Ireland’s Dream runs while beating the “Big Boys of World cricket” in the World cup continued in the next edition as well when they went on to chase a big total of 304 against West Indies team. Playing fist, West Indies did manage to post a total of 303 runs, thanks to some brilliant knocks by Lendl Simmons and Darren Sammy who took the team into a commanding position while they were 87 for 5 once.
In reply, Ireland never looked in trouble and easily chased down the mammoth score with more than 4 overs to spare in the innings.
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