ICC Intercontinental Cup and Shield

IRELAND Played Won Drawn Lost Won on first inns Lost on first inns No result 24 14 3 3 2 2 Highest team total 578-4 dec v Kenya Nairobi 2008 Lowest team total 69 v Namibia Windhoek 2008 Highest individual total 209* E.J.G.Morgan v United Arab Emirates Abu Dhabi 2007 Best bowling analysis 7-88 R.M.West v Scotland Aberdeen 2009 Best wicketkeeping 5 c R.D.McCann v Canada Toronto 2010 Ireland easily have the best record in the competition, winning it three times. They have only been defeated twice, once by Scotland in August 2004 and not again until January 2010, when they played Afghanistan. Both these defeats were against the respective winners of the competition in those years. Overall they have won 58% of their matches. Their loss to Afghanistan almost certainly cost them the opportunity of winning the trophy for a fourth time, although they were not helped by problems with the weather in the British Isles. Too many of their matches at home, or against Scotland away, end in draws because of rain. This factor is probably more important than their inability to field their strongest sides because of the commitments of players to the English counties. Ireland is arguably the only country in the competition where there is sufficient quality in depth that the substitutes are almost as good as the players they replace. Those critics of Associate cricket who feel that players should be ‘home-grown’ rather than expatriate imports will undoubtedly note that of the 37 players used by Ireland, 30% were born outside the British Isles. Such has been the attraction of Irish club cricket and, until very recently, the Irish economy that many players who came to the Republic of Ireland as club professionals decided to stay and either qualify by residence or become Irish citizens. Ireland’s strengths in the competition have been their ability to score a large number of runs relatively quickly, the quality of their pace bowling and their depth in wicketkeeping. Andre Botha, Niall O’Brien and Andrew White have all scored over 1,000 runs, the last two with averages over 60. Botha, Jeremy Bray, Eoin Morgan and Trent Johnston all have strike rates greater than 60. Johnston is the leading wicket-taker with 81 victims at an average of 16.07 and a strike rate of 36.00. Boyd Rankin and Peter Connell are others with 20 wickets or more at averages under 20 and strike rates under 35. No spin bowler is able to match these statistics but Kyle McCallan and Regan West have both taken twenty wickets or more at averages in the low twenties. McCallan also has an impressive economy rate, conceding an average of only 2.42 runs per over. Niall O’Brien leads the wicketkeeping with 33 catches and one stumping in spite of playing in only 45% of the matches. Gary Wilson proved an excellent deputy as well as playing as a batsman when Niall O’Brien was in the side. When both O’Brien and Wilson were unable to play, Rory McCann had an promising first-class debut holding nine catches in the match. KENYA Played Won Drawn Lost Won on first inns Lost on first inns No result 23 8 2 5 1† 7 † Match against Scotland in 2008 abandoned without a ball being bowled Highest team total 433 v Netherlands Nairobi 2010 Lowest team total 91 v Scotland Nairobi 2010 Highest individual total 220 S.O.Tikolo v Bermuda Windhoek 2005 Best bowling analysis 6-21 L.N.Onyango v Uganda Kampala 2005 Best wicketkeeping 5 c M.A.Ouma v Bermuda Nairobi 2006 273 Countries