ICC Intercontinental Cup and Shield

CANADA v IRELAND The third final of the ICC Intercontinental Cup was, like the first final, extremely one-sided, the successful team winning by an innings. In both the first and third finals the losing side was Canada and the winners were European. The Canadians were perhaps unfortunate to encounter a wicket, though flat and true, with plenty of grass which, whilst the morning moisture was retained, created conditions favourable to swing bowling. Canada were even more unfortunate to lose the toss and confront an Irish attack strong in pace bowling, even though Boyd Rankin, like wicketkeeper Niall O’Brien, was unavailable because of English first-class county duties. Surprisingly, given their experience, the Canadian batsmen were unable to cope with the moving ball, falling either leg-before to deliveries cutting in from the off or to catches to the slips and wicketkeeper. The exception was Qaiser Ali who was splendidly caught by William Porterfield, low, two-handed to his right, at cover point. Wickets fell regularly throughout the morning with Canada reaching lunch on 75 for nine from 27.4 overs. A last-wicket partnership in 4 overs after the interval took the score to 92. When Ireland came to bat, it was almost as though the match was being played on a different pitch. Once the opening spells of Umar Bhatti and Henry Osinde had been carefully negotiated, Jeremy Bray and William Porterfield played beautifully, putting on 202 in 46 overs, the highest opening stand in the competition. Bray reached his fifty off 54 balls, with nine fours and a six, and his century off 112 balls, with a further ten fours. Porterfield was content to play a supporting role but his half-century included seven fours and one six. Both fell quickly with the score at 202 and Ireland lost Peter Gillespie 18 runs later. Eoin Morgan and Kevin O’Brien saw out the day to give the batting side a lead of 158 runs. Ireland progressed more slowly on the second morning adding 47 runs in 21 overs, the last eleven overs against the new ball. The ground’s reputation for swing in the morning session was upheld when Umar Bhatti moved one into O’Brien and trapped him leg-before. Off the second, third and fourth balls of Umar Bhatti’s next over, virtually identical deliveries accounted for Andrew White, Gary Wilson and Thinus Fourie, all correctly given out leg-before by Paul Baldwin. Umar Bhatti thus became the 11th bowler to obtain a hat-trick of leg-befores in first-class cricket; he also became the first bowler to achieve four such decisions in five balls. Ireland never recovered and the innings ended five overs after lunch, Morgan being the last to depart for 84, after hitting two sixes and one four in six balls in a last-wicket partnership of 22. Despite losing their last seven wickets for 55 runs, Ireland had a substantial lead of 260. Canada showed slightly more application but no more ability in their second innings. Trent Johnston and David Langford-Smith again troubled the upper order, although John Davison and Asif Mulla offered some resistance. Kyle McCallan then showed that Canada’s middle and lower order were no more adept at dealing with clever off spin than pace bowling as he took five wickets in 8.5 overs for only 34 runs. By 5.00 pm on the second day the match was over with Ireland convincing victors following another highly professional performance. Notwithstanding Umar Bhatti’s hat-trick and Trent Johnston’s match return of seven for 59, Jeremy Bray was given the Man-of-the-Match award for his dominating batting, his 146 runs being made at a strike rate of 96.0. 110 ICC Intercontinental Cup 2006-07