 England will take on Ireland in the last game of the Group D on Tuesday
at Guyana. If Ireland lose this game, they will be out of the tournament, whereas
England will go through to the next round along with West Indies.
In Ireland's first game, they bowled reasonably well to keep the West Indian
side down to 138 in the 20 overs. In fact, on that same day, Sri Lanka had scored
only 136 on that same pitch and the Kiwis had won with only one ball to spare
, which shows that Ireland had done well to keep the Caribbean side down. Unfortunately
for the Irish, their batting performance under the lights was as abysmal as
it could be.
Click for Live Score Card of England Vs IrelandIn this game against the English side, the Irish will have a small advantage
and that is that they would have played against most of the players from England.
This will allow them to know the English game before hand and hence plan accordingly.
However, no amount of planning will compensate for the lack of batting that
they had shown in the first game.
Ireland will be hoping that they win the toss and elect to bat first, given
that chasing could be a tricky proposition. They will also know that in the
previous edition of the tournament, Netherlands had beaten England in the first
round of the tournament and if Ireland could play to their actual potential,
they could give England a run for their money. For that, the likes of William Porterfield and Niall O'Brien will need to realise that the pitches do not
allow for the airy-fairy start from the very start and hence will need to play
out the first few overs before going after the bowling.
England, on the other hand, will need to play their brand of cricket that they
had in the warm-ups, in turn, beating Bangladesh and South Africa. Full credit
must be given to the English bowlers and the manner in which they bowled and
got the side close to a win. Usually, such pitches, which afford the slower
bowlers many more chances than the quicker ones, England has never been a very
successful team, but after possessing two of the better spinners in the ranks
in the recent times, Michael Yardy and Graeme Swann, it will become easier
for the team.
The batting will be one to look out for given that the English batsmen have
not had the habit of playing here. This is where, Kevin Pietersen experience
of playing in the IPL may come good and they will be a side to watch out for.
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