Can Ireland bowl out the Windies for 25 again?

On the 23rd of March, when the Ireland cricket team steps onto the field in their final group match of the 2007 World Cup agains the West Indies, they will have at least two matches to draw inspiration from. One of the two is the obvious one - the St. Patrick's day magic when they took on the might of Pakistan and came out trumps. For the other one, we will have to go back into history, some 28 years back.

The setting was Sion Mills, near Londonderry, Northern Ireland, date 2nd July, 1969. ( no connnection to Bryan Adam's Summer of 1969, though this date has a strong connect with Jimmy Hendrix) The West Indies cricket team had just finished a not too memorable tour of England losing the series 0-2. The great West Indian all-rounder Gary Sobers was a part of this team though he didn't join the rest of his team on their short tour to Ireland post the series in England as he was injured. Yet, the Windies team included quite a few big names and were led by none other than Clive Lloyd.

What happened on that fateful Wednesday is still very fondly remembered by Irish cricket fans and why not. The Irish team bowled out the entire West Indies cricket team for a mere 25 !!! Dougie Goodwin and Alec O'Riordan did the most damage taking 5 and 4 wickets respectively. Four West Indian batsmen got out for ducks and no one managed to get into double digits. It's not even that the wicket was a demon or something as the Ireland team scored 125/8 in their reply - actually declaring their innings at that score.

Four days from now, when the Ireland cricket team meets in their dressing room in Jamaica for the pre-match talk, I'm sure someone will talk about that wonderul Wednesday in the summer of 1969 - the greatest day in Irish cricket history. A little inspiration - and then we all know that history has a way of repeating itself. Sláinte!

image source: cricketeurope.net

and thank you Satyabrat for the story

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after-thought:

Come to think of it, that's 107 runs less than what Pakistan made last Saturday - while Inzy retired from ODI cricket subsequent to Saturday's disaster, Clive Lloyd went on to captain the West Indies to 2 World Cup victories.