Photo Credit: Cricket Ireland
After his eye-catching international debut for Ireland against England in July 2020, Curtis Campher once more displayed his all-round skills during the first one-day international against UAE last Friday. He is keen to back it up again tomorrow in game two, and believes the side will get better with more game time.
Campher made a solid 24 from 30 balls in game one, helping to stabilise a precarious situation for the Irish having lost three quick wickets. He then followed it up with 2-31 from his ten overs – easily the most economical bowler for the men in green.
Speaking from the team hotel, he said:
“It’s been a couple of days since the first ODI and we’ve had a chance to look back on the game – particularly what went our way and what didn’t. The key for the batting department is growing those partnerships – putting together 50 partnerships, growing those to 100 partnerships. Really looking to create long periods of the game when we can dominate. We didn’t kick on and take the advantage in the first game.”
“With the ball, we struggled to take wickets in the middle overs – which is a problem when you’re trying to restrict the run rate and build pressure. Sadly what didn’t go our way was our ability to take those wickets at regular intervals, which led to them building a really good partnership and allowed them to take home the game that we always thought we were in with a chance to win. They just played a really good game of cricket – Usman and Rizwan batted really well, and that’s what made the difference as they had two batters who really stuck with it and we weren’t able to take wickets in the middle.”
“My role in the middle overs was to try build as much pressure as possible, keep it tight and try take wickets as often as we could – but we just couldn’t do that unfortunately.”
“The pitches have been playing well – slightly on the slow side which is expected when you come here. There’s also a little turn. We’re playing on a new surface tomorrow, but I’d expect the same conditions of being slow and tough to score on. It’ll be about being patient and banging on that hard length and making it tough for batters to score, and if we get a chance to get in their first tomorrow it will be about getting a good total on the board.”
The second one-day international will start at 9.30am (local time) or 5.30am (GMT).
FIXTURES
The international fixtures, which will be played at the Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi, are:
• UAE v Ireland – 2nd ODI – 12 Jan 2021 (start: 9.30am local time / 5.30am Irish time)
• UAE v Ireland – 3rd ODI – 14 Jan 2021 (start: 9.30am local time / 5.30am Irish time)
• UAE v Ireland – 4th ODI – 16 Jan 2021 (start: 9.30am local time / 5.30am Irish time)
• Afghanistan v Ireland – 1st ODI – 21 Jan 2021 (start: 9.30am local time / 5.30am Irish time)
• Afghanistan v Ireland – 2nd ODI – 24 Jan 2021 (start: 9.30am local time / 5.30am Irish time)
• Afghanistan v Ireland – 3rd ODI – 26 Jan 2021 (start: 9.30am local time / 5.30am Irish time)
The matches against Afghanistan will be part of the World Cup Super League (see below for details).
LIVESTREAM / BROADCAST
Matches will be livestreamed via Youtube in Ireland / UK, with further details made available closer to the match days. For the rest of the world, the series with either be shown on satellite television or livestreamed, so please check local guides.
SQUAD
The Ireland Men’s squad is:
Andrew Balbirnie (C), Mark Adair, Curtis Campher, Gareth Delany, Josh Little, Andrew McBrine, Barry McCarthy, James McCollum, Kevin O’Brien, Neil Rock, Simi Singh, Paul Stirling, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker, Craig Young.
WORLD CUP SUPER LEAGUE
Matches played as part of the inaugural ICC Cricket World Cup Super League (2020-2023) are essentially World Cup Qualifier matches, as the League will serve as part of the 2023 Cricket World Cup Qualification process.
• See the current WCSL table as it stands
The WCSL features thirteen teams, the twelve Full members of the International Cricket Council (ICC), and the Netherlands (who won the 2015–17 ICC World Cricket League Championship to qualify for this competition). Each team will play an ODI series against eight of the twelve opponents, four series at home and four away. Each series will consist of three ODIs. For the World Cup, the hosts (India in 2023), and the top seven-ranked sides thereafter, will qualify automatically. The remaining five teams will play in a qualifying event along with five Associate sides, from which two sides will go through to the final tournament.
