Related Links : World Cup 2007 : Scorecard
The 17th of March in the year 2007 was a day of triumphs of the so-called minnows over the bigwigs of the sub-continent, namely Pakistan and India. On one hand, we had Bangladesh humbling India, on the other hand Pakistan went on to suffer an even more humiliating defeat.
People expecting a massacre of the lambs at the Sabina Park, Jamaica were taken by surprise as it turned out to be a rebellion by the underdogs. On a pitch that was difficult to bat on, Trent Johnston called correctly and sent Pakistan in after winning the toss , and the rest is history. Pakistani wickets fell like nine pins as Irish bowlers drew blood after blood. The entire Pakistani team was back in the pavillion for a paltry 132 runs after 45.4 overs. Imran Nazir, Mohammad Yousuf, Kamran Akmal and Mohanmmad Sami were the only Pakistani batsmen to reach double figures. Botha returned with the 5th most economical figures in the history of ODIs, 8-4-5-2! The other main wicket takers being Rankin and McCallan with three and two wickets respectively.The Irish spectators might be forgiven for thinking that they were experiencing hallucinations!!
The Irish innings did not start off too fluently either, with Bray and Morgan back in the pavillion and the score reading just 15 after 5.3 overs.They were up against a Pakistani attack that boasted of the likes of Sami, Gul and the one change Iftikhar Anjum with all of them generating deadly pace and accuracy. But Niall O’Brien, the left-handed wicket keeper batsman had other ideas.The soutpaw went onto enter the history books as he became the mainstay of the Irish innings. When he was out, he had scored a fluent 72 of 107 deliveries out of the Irish score of 108. After that it was a tale of stout resistance by the batsmen to come, particularly Niall O’Brien’s brother Kevin O’Brien. Rain and bad light briefly stopped play, but when the game resumed, Duckworth-Lewis could not play spoilsport to Ireland’s advances as they successfully chased down the revised target of 128 from 47 overs with 5.2 overs to spare and 3 wickets in hand. Right now it is carnival time for the Irish, as they lead the points tally in Group D and are most likely to make it to the super 8s.