March 31st, 2007 : Quiztion of the Day - 19
Luck of the Irish deserted the Ireland team when it was most needed. Ireland gave a reasonable fight after their strike bowler left the field with cramps bowling just seven overs of his spell. Though Irish team displayed tremendous athleticism on field, enormous grit with the bat and excellent discipline with the ball except for the last five overs, in the end it was England who went on to register a not so convincing victory against the so called minnows of Super 8s. The Irish opening bowler Boyd Rankin, undoubtedly the tallest cricketer of the tournament, sent back both the English openers to the pavilion before they could reach double figures with England struggling at 23 for 2. And when Ian Bell was dismissed by the combination of O’Brien brothers and the score reading 89 for 3 of 21 overs, Michael Vaughan must have questioned himself certainly about the decision to bat first after winning the toss. Kevin Peitersen got out for 48 when he was beginning to takeaway the proceedings and England was crawling at the wicket when William Boyd Rankin left the field at the end of 30 overs. Another over by Rankin at that stage could have proved vital especially with the out of form Flintoff and still not-so-settled Collingwood on 18 of 32 balls at the crease. Ireland missed him at the end of England innings too as Collingwood creamed the tired Ireland attack with 51 runs coming from the last four overs. Paul Collingwood did bat with authority after he got settled and added 81 valuable runs for the fifth wicket with Freddie Flintoff, who too found some batting form at last. At 194 for 5, and only 6 more overs to go a 250 score looked far beyond the capability of England’s lower order. However Collingwood moved to the top gear at that point and stayed till the last over before getting run out for a superbly made 90 with just three balls left in the innings.
Ireland did not get a good start they were looking for to chase the 267 target with their main batsman Jeremy Bray getting out to a first ball duck caught by Ravi Bopara of James Anderson. Like his counterpart and ex-teammate Ed Joyce, who earlier shouldered arms to a Rankin delivery and saw his off stump uprooted, Bray gave a first ball wicket to the second opening bowler of the opposition. Twenty year old Eoin Morgan, Ireland's star batsman after Ed Joyce opted to play for England, was run out when he was found just an inch short of the crease by a brilliant piece of fielding and quick thinking by Sajid Mahmood. From then the Ireland batsmen more by lack of experience than anything else did not rotate the strike and could not hit boundaries as Michael Vaughan’s excellent field placements dried them down and the run rate kept climbing. However Ireland was still in the game in 45th over with the scorecard reading 197 for 6, almost on par with England’s progress. But they did not have Collingwood in their team and in the end they were all out for 218 as Andrew Flintoff bowled the best deliveries any tail ender would hate to receive.
Ireland should consider themselves proud of their performance in this game. This outing would definitely provide them enough confidence to play good cricket going forward as worthy opponents to other teams and detach themselves from the minnows tag. Niall O’Brien, their top scorer in the upset victory over Pakistan has scored again in this match with a fluent 63. He said in a post-match interview that they take many positives from this game and can certainly spring one or two upsets down the lane. When asked which team is their main target, he said ‘Australia’ – that would definitely be the biggest upset not only in cricketing history but in sporting history as well.
Unlike many of my previous questions, today’s 'Quiztion of the day' does not figure the current tournament records but still concerns with fast bowlers . Of course these bowlers were of slightly different physique than Boyd Rankin when they achieved this particular bowling feat. Here it goes:
Shown in the pictures below are the only bowlers to have achieved a particular bowling record in the World Cup. Identify these cricketers and provide me the details of the remarkable bowling feat each of them achieved in World Cup history.
Ireland did not get a good start they were looking for to chase the 267 target with their main batsman Jeremy Bray getting out to a first ball duck caught by Ravi Bopara of James Anderson. Like his counterpart and ex-teammate Ed Joyce, who earlier shouldered arms to a Rankin delivery and saw his off stump uprooted, Bray gave a first ball wicket to the second opening bowler of the opposition. Twenty year old Eoin Morgan, Ireland's star batsman after Ed Joyce opted to play for England, was run out when he was found just an inch short of the crease by a brilliant piece of fielding and quick thinking by Sajid Mahmood. From then the Ireland batsmen more by lack of experience than anything else did not rotate the strike and could not hit boundaries as Michael Vaughan’s excellent field placements dried them down and the run rate kept climbing. However Ireland was still in the game in 45th over with the scorecard reading 197 for 6, almost on par with England’s progress. But they did not have Collingwood in their team and in the end they were all out for 218 as Andrew Flintoff bowled the best deliveries any tail ender would hate to receive.
Ireland should consider themselves proud of their performance in this game. This outing would definitely provide them enough confidence to play good cricket going forward as worthy opponents to other teams and detach themselves from the minnows tag. Niall O’Brien, their top scorer in the upset victory over Pakistan has scored again in this match with a fluent 63. He said in a post-match interview that they take many positives from this game and can certainly spring one or two upsets down the lane. When asked which team is their main target, he said ‘Australia’ – that would definitely be the biggest upset not only in cricketing history but in sporting history as well.
Unlike many of my previous questions, today’s 'Quiztion of the day' does not figure the current tournament records but still concerns with fast bowlers . Of course these bowlers were of slightly different physique than Boyd Rankin when they achieved this particular bowling feat. Here it goes:
Shown in the pictures below are the only bowlers to have achieved a particular bowling record in the World Cup. Identify these cricketers and provide me the details of the remarkable bowling feat each of them achieved in World Cup history.
Remember to email your answers for each quiz individually to vijay@dreamcricket.com with the subject line as 'Quiztion of the Day - X' (X being the question number) through out the tournament duration. Results will be first posted on http://www.dreamcricket.com/ website within a week of the World Cup Final.
Cheers...
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