^^ Oh boy just checked the scoreboard after reading few comments and it was really nail biting match. my bad i missed it, Where are you watching this live? i might check out last match or may be T-20 series.
I watch all the matches live or at least watch the full highlights. Ireland was very close to a win but West Indies managed to win by just 1 Wicket.
The Last ball was hit for a six making WI cross the line. It was a nail bitter thriller.
Alzarri Joseph was well deserved Man of the match.
Ireland once again proved that they are the ultimate chokers of world cricket. I was watching the match live on YouTube (WICB made the live streaming available for free). They needed 5 runs from the last overs, with just one wicket remaining. Hayden Walsh and Sheldon Cottrell were batting and Mark Adair was given the bowling responsibility.
All Ireland had to do was to keep Cottrell on strike. He was struggling to give strike to Walsh and Adair missed two simple chances to run him out. If Irish players perform like this, then I don't think they will remain in international scene much longer. All Adair had to do was to collect the ball and strike the stumps (batsman was miles away in both the cases). He missed, in both the cases.
They are not playing a lot of international cricket and that might be one of the reason they missed out on this simple opportunity. This what is called lack of international cricket exposure and experience.
On a serious note Ireland should be given more international cricket exposure and only ICC can schedule more matches for this country. They have a lot of talents and they prove this whenever they are allowed to play against big teams. If they are not given the exposure, they will only remain an underdog team.
It also depends on Irish cricket board, they should negotiate with ICC and other boards for the team to participate in tri series or single series tournaments happening around the globe. Blaming ICC won' t help.
Why will ICC allow them to play more matches think realistically guys, ICC is only interested in making money and advertisers won’t pay top dollars for Ireland matches hence I don’t expect Ireland to play lots of international cricket matches anytime soon.
However if Ireland board is smart enough then they can send their top players in T20 leagues and focus on helping their players become global stars once this happens ICC will automatically schedule more international matches for them.
Also I feel the criticism directed at Ireland players is a bit harsh, because you’ll need to understand that they were never pros in this sport and it’ll take them quite a while before they can offer some serious competition to their opponents.
.