v Ireland C&G @ Stormont Sunday 25 June 2006

Scorecard

It doesn't look like the chance has been taken as the team line-up offers no opportunities to John Francis, Neil Edwards, Rob Woodman or even Simon Francis to get some first class pitch time.  Short sighted possibly or maybe the powers that be have a better view of things than we do and these boys are not going to figure anywhere in the up-coming matches.  Instead the side is hugely predictable with the usual suspects in the usual positions...except for one.

The side is;

Wood, Langer, Suppiah, White, Durston, Hildreth, Parsons, Gazzard, Andrew, Johnson, Willoughby

The new name is of course Australian Justin Langer who is with us for the next six weeks (round about the Yorkshire one day game at Taunton on 13th of August - or 20/20 Finals Day the day before?  We can dream can't we?).  Some comments were made about giving players a rest in this game but the Irish are not to be treated lightly and the under-performance of our side this year will not be cured by rest.  It is however surprising possibly that Frank Junior didn't get a place for this one.

So, in view of the Northern Irish parliament building, we win the toss and choose to bat first.  Langer opens with the Somerset Vice captain and things start in usual fashion as Justin sees his initial partner fall with 20 on the board caught behind off another Johnson.  The Irish are obviously doing something right because as I type this first bit of the report they have us at 49 off nearly 15 overs and the mighty man from Oz has also gone caught behind for 18 so Cameron White and Arul Suppiah are in familiar territory that they probably expected to avoid with an Australian International opener in the line-up.  Well he's got to find his feet and I for one would rather he did that in foreign climes than next week at the County Ground.

I hope Bagpuss, who is following this 'almost international' will be penning her thoughts on the game later today so we get some eye witness stuff.  Until later I leave you with the up to the minute score of 55 for 2 off 16.1 overs.  With our bowling line-up I suggest a good day for Charl Willoughby is required or the foot pedal needs to go nearer to the floor and some quicker runs need acquiring in the second half of this game - please let's not do a Middlesex on them!

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