Ireland v Sri Lanka, Castle Avenue, Clontarf, Tuesday, 10.45am
With less than 10 months to Ireland’s third appearance at a 50-overs World Cup and with little in the way of high quality games pencilled in before the squad depart for Australia and New Zealand, the two clashes with Sri Lanka over the next three days are key to coach Phil Simmons’s summer plans.
Ireland have been forced to survive on scraps, with this being just their fifth One-Day International in the last year. At present, Simmons has just three home games against Sri Lanka ‘A’ in August and three against Scotland at Malahide in September to frame up his squad for early next year down under.
He admitted yesterday that his mind is open to all-comers by stating that skipper William Porterfield is the only name on the plane so far, with the other 14 seats waiting to be filled.
“Everyone else has a place to play for,” said Simmons. “There’s nothing bigger than a World Cup and Australia and New Zealand would be one of the biggest you could go to, so a lot of guys want to be on that. But there’s a lot of work to be done before that so let’s start working from tomorrow.”
Simmons pointed to Ireland’s failure to close out games as one area he will be concentrating on with the players, with missed opportunities in last year’s two-game series against Pakistan and also against England at Malahide last September.
“The thing about it is that in the three games here last year we had teams at 40 for four so it’s not as big a concern as people seem to think, but it is a concern because we are not closing out games and that is what we are going to start to work on now.”
Toe-crusher
The loss of Boyd Rankin and particularly the retirement of Trent Johnston has proved tough for this Ireland side to handle, with the dismantling at the hands of the Dutch at the World Twenty20 a serious blow to their confidence.
Ireland face a Sri Lanka side missing four of their big names in the batting triumvirate of Tillakaratne Dilshan, Mahela Jayawardena, Kumar Sangakkara and toe-crusher supreme Lasith Malinga, while Thisara Perera failed to receive a visa after his participation in the Indian Premier League and is replaced by Shamindra Eranga.
With so many changes at the top of their batting order, Ireland will look to make full use of the new ball and conditions that will suit Ireland's attack, with Tim Murtagh particularly adept at getting the most out of any juice in the pitch.
Ireland's batsmen have been in great form both in England and on the domestic scene, with Ed Joyce close to the top of the England first-class standings with 482 runs and brothers Niall and Kevin O'Brien having recorded centuries in the last week.
It will be their perfomance with the ball that will decide if Ireland can break their home duck against Test-playing nations. A weakened Sri Lanka in conditions that will not agree at all with them, certainly opens up the possibility. Ireland know that they’ll need to perform for the full 100 overs if they are to get over the line.
IRELAND (from): William Porterfield (Warwickshire, capt), Alex Cusack (Clontarf), George Dockrell (Somerset), Ed Joyce (Sussex), Tim Murtagh (Middlesex), Andrew McBrine (Donemana), Kevin O'Brien (Railway Union), Niall O'Brien (Leicestershire), Andrew Poynter (Clontarf), Max Sorensen (The Hills), Paul Stirling (Middlesex), Stuart Thompson (Eglinton), Gary Wilson (Surrey).
SRI LANKA (from): Angelo Mathews (capt), Dinesh Chandimal, Chaturange de Silva, Niroshan Dickwella, Shamindra Eranga, Nuwan Kulasekera, Suranga Lakmal, Ajantha Mendis, Kusal Perera, Dhammika Prasad, Ashan Priyanjan, Sachithra Senanayake, Upul Tharanga, Kithuruwan Vithanage
