Ireland must wait for Stormont win

Cricket : A mixture of bad light and the dismissal of big-hitter Paul Stirling meant Ireland will have to go back to Stormont…

Cricket: A mixture of bad light and the dismissal of big-hitter Paul Stirling meant Ireland will have to go back to Stormont on Friday morning to complete a routine victory over Namibia in their opening Intercontinental Cup clash.

The home side required 173 for victory after bowling the Africans side out for 226 in their second dig and with Stirling in full flow it looked like the game would end with a day to spare.

The Middlesex opener hit eight fours and a six to make 53 from 44 deliveries before Stephan Baard trapped him leg-before, while left-arm spinner Louis van der Westhuizen accounted for Andrew Poynter (20) and Alex Cusack (42) in the space of 10 deliveries late on to stall any hopes of the game finishing inside three days.

Bad light saw the umpires eventually call stumps with Ireland requiring 38 runs with six wickets in hand, and only some serious bad luck with the weather looks like stalling a quick conclusion to affairs and a full 20-point haul for Phil Simmons’s side.

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They have the right men for the job at the wicket, with skipper Kevin O’Brien and first-innings centurion Andrew White set to resume Ireland’s second innings in the morning.

Teenage spinner George Dockrell earlier completed a fine match with the ball, taking three wickets to finish with a total of eight for 116 in just his fifth first-class outing.

Namibia had looked like setting Ireland a far more imposing total when Christi Viljoen was at the wicket but the all-rounder was bowled by a pearler of a delivery from John Mooney for 87 to leave the visitors on 144 for four.

O’Brien then took the two crucial middle-order wickets of Gerrie Snyman and Van der Westhuizen, before Dockrell and a couple of crazy run outs, finished them off.