ICC Intercontinental Cup and Shield

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES v IRELAND Without Niall O’Brien, suspended for one match after his behaviour in his previous game in the competition against Scotland, Ireland chose to use Jeremy Bray as wicketkeeper. After winning the toss, Ireland dominated the first day on a true pitch with a fast outfield. Bray and William Porterfield opened with a partnership of 122, the latter falling four runs short of his half-century, cutting Ahmed Nadeem into the hands of Arshad Ali at cover point. Bray was trapped leg-before soon after, bringing Eoin Morgan and Andre Botha together. By the end of the day they had added 325 runs, giving only one chance, when Botha was dropped at cover after he had scored 105. They made their runs at almost five an over in a delightful display of strokeplay. Only one shot was lifted into the air, yielding six runs to Morgan, the other 33 boundaries being played all along the ground for fours. The Emirates tried eight bowlers without success as Ireland moved into the excellent position of 461 for two at the close. On the second day the partnership soon passed 331 to become the highest recorded in the competition for any wicket, finally ending on 360 when Botha drove Wasim Bari in the air to mid off. Morgan went on to beat the 198 by Ivan Anderson against Canada in 1973 to record the highest individual score for Ireland in international cricket. With two wickets falling quickly as Ireland increased the tempo once 500 had been exceeded, Trent Johnston chose to declare, leaving Morgan with an undefeated double-hundred. Ireland then turned in a remarkable bowling performance. Boyd Rankin achieved pace and bounce from the pitch and troubled all the batsmen but his reward was only one wicket. Kyle McCallan tied the batsmen in knots with his off spin, bowling seven consecutive maidens in his first eight overs. As a result, although most of the Emirates’ top and middle order got starts they were unable to build on them, falling in the twenties and thirties, The exception was Arshad Ali who batted well and looked dangerous, only for his innings to be ended in a run-out, a direct throw from McCallan, when, in a mix-up, Arshad Ali and Khurram Khan found themselves at the same end. Johnston picked up two late wickets in a spell of seven overs for seven runs to leave the Emirates 309 runs behind, with Naeemuddin Aslam turning down singles in the last five overs of the day to protect Ahmed Raza, the last man, from the strike. On the third morning, it took 22 minutes before Johnston accounted for Ahmed Raza and then invited the Emirates to bat again. In an inspired spell of bowling, he took the first three wickets to fall in only six balls, including that of Arshad Ali. Naeemuddin Aslam, the not-out batsman from the first innings, kept his pads on to open with Arshad but he fell to a superb catch by Peter Gillespie, diving to his right on the square-leg boundary. Saqib Ali was leg-before to the last ball before lunch which was taken with the score at 36 for four. After the interval there was a short period of resistance, whilst Khurram Khan scored at four runs an over for seven overs and Kashif Khan batted out 28 balls without even attempting to score. McCallan accounted for both and Rankin’s return was far too much for the tail. On what was a good batting wicket, the Emirates were dismissed in 48 overs, a display almost as hapless as their performance in Namibia, particularly as they were playing in familiar conditions. Ireland batted, bowled and fielded superbly to reach the final of the competition. Eoin Morgan received the Man-of-the-Match award. 108 ICC Intercontinental Cup 2006-07