Ireland beat Warwickshire in Belfast

Ireland secured their first win of the Championship season with a fine victory over the English county at Stormont. However, despite the comfortable win, priorites still lay further afield for Irish cricket.

Last Thursday evening Fergus Carroll, PRO of the Irish Cricket Union, reiterated the sentiments of coach Phil Simmons and former captain Trent Johnson that the Friend Provident Trophy was to be used as gaining valuable experience for the top crickets in Ireland.

Competing against some of the best English counties was always going to be tough for a full strenght Ireland, but ocassionally opertaing with just four members from the World Cup squad due to a variety of reasons from retirements, to injuries to contracts abroad means the task has become down-right difficult.

Three defeats on the bounce again questioned Ireland’s eligability in this tournament but today they recorded a resounding four wicket victory over Warwickshire in Belfast. Needing 212 to claim their maiden win of the season (and first in two years), Ireland achieved their target with over three overs remaining. William Porterfield top scored with 69, but it was the quick fire 35 off 30 balls from Reimhardt Strydom that really put Ireland on the verge.

In previous matches, a combination of poor middle order batting and quality bowling from one time English internationals led to a collapse on the crease for the Irish, and these were often compounded by the inability of the Irish attack to turn a potentially winnable position into just that. This time, however, no Irish batter finished with lower than double digits, and by the time Alex Cusack fell for the third wicket, Ireland already had over 110 on the scorebaord.

Paul Sterling, who hit a sumptious 70 against Northants two weeks ago, finished with 27 from 31 balls on his Stormont debut to complete an impressive few weeks for the 19 student, who recently finished his exams. Simmons and Carroll like to use the examples of Sterling and 17 year old James Hall when referring to experience. Ultimately, world cup qualification to the sub-continent in 2011 and defense of the Inter Continential Cup are the main priorits for this squad.

On Sunday they host Leicestershire in Belfast, and a chance at revenge for a game that really slipped through their fingers at Grace Road in April. Northants complete the FPT when they bring Monty Panesar and Niall O’Brien to Clontarf in two weeks. Then the serious business begins. After todays good win, nothing should be feared with this team.