A FAMILIAR plot unfolded at Castle Avenue yesterday, as Ireland lost their third Benson and Hedges group game to a no-nonsense Gloucestershire outfit by 168 runs. Defeat in itself is no surprise but with home advantage, Mike Hendrick and his players would have hoped for a smaller deficit.
It all began promisingly. After winning the toss, the visitors took their time in adjusting to the slowness of the pitch, with Robert Dawson chipping Mark Patterson to mid-off in the seventh over. The first 15 overs realised just 63 runs and Ireland's first objective, to restrict their opponents to a total of around 250, looked on.
Alan Lewis, with very limited options swopped his bowlers around even giving debutant Declan Moore a couple of overs, but couldn't dislodge Tony Wright or Robert Cunliffe as their second-wicket partnership added 221 runs.
The big hits that the crowd had come to see emerged towards the end of the innings, as Gloucestershire scored 10, an over for the last 10. Before that, Wright and Cunliffe had accumulated sensibly and gave a fine exhibition in the art of running between the wickets.
After he departed the scene in the 45th over Cunliffe and Tim Hancock went into over-drive. A succession of lofted drives and pulls took the score past 300 and the only comfort for the Irish bowlers was that Andrew Symonds had been denied an extended stay at the wicket.
It was only when Lewis and just in Benson were together that the visitors looked remotely flustered. Benson looked good, scoring a run a ball before the power and accuracy of Symonds' arm left him comfortably short of his ground.
