Pakistan in Ireland

Just a two match series but an important one for both the sides, IRE have a lot to prove to the world and the ICC and a good performance here will put severe pressure on the ICC to include the associate teams in the next WC. PAK on the other hand are back to their original ways, controversies, another new captain and several test players in ODI team. They would desperately want to win these two games before a fairly long break that awaits.

Haha. Yup, Pakistan has to take these two matches seriously. I just hope that the decision to change the caption does not create any negative impact on them

Apparently Afridi might retire, it will be interesting to see if that actually happens. Anyway, what is the purpose of appointing a 36 year old captain. Do Pakistan like changing captain every 6 months?

 Naah!! Pakistan should've this in the bag without a sweat. Ireland's a good side, I do hope they get a lot of international games to play. I'll still put my two cents on Bangladesh if the two side were to play.  They got more experience and talent for mine.

Spot on V4P, Ireland if given sufficient chances to play big teams on consistent basis, they will surely find themselves a decent spot in ODI rankings within a year or two. I would not be surprised if they fare better then few teams who have Test status. Ireland has got nice set of players. They can handle pace well, and showed that they can apply themselves and play quality spin on sub-continent pitches too.Thats enough for me.

Edited by MalhotraRaj84 - 28 May 2011 at 2:36pm

Ireland will be kicking themselves, this was an opportunity to show the world they deserve to be playing more international cricket and deserve to be playing at world cups. No other associate teams get to play against big sides. They missed a trick here, that's for sure.

In reality, half their players play quality FC cricket on the County scene and they are right next to England and it's not out of the way for teams to offer to play 1 or 2 ODIs against them. They are in an excellent position to improve their cricket, it's just a matter of taking ADVANTAGE of the chances and not collapsing.
This too will also help them to retain players like Joyce (who is now back) and Morgan, who are international class.

I did not watch the match - can't comment much. I actually was unaware that Pakistan were playing Ireland on the 28th - I thought it was somewhere in June. I wouldn't be surprised if Pakistan play another drawn series. I am not the one to pick Pakistan as favorites on the basis of the performance a night before.

Good come back by Pakistan, they look far more comfortable now at 185/4, they should win it now unless Duckworth & Lewis mess it up for them!

Good come back by Pakistan and congratulations for winning 3 consecutive series in a row though these series wins were against NZ, WI and Ireland.