This was no Gayle and Lewis either.Did you expect that the biggest hit-makers on a very Irish Sunday would be John Campbell and Shai Hope- 6, 46 ODI innings respectively?But hey, here’s the real winner of the day.
This too, a one-sided affair.
And at the losing end stood an Ireland, with Porterfield, Stirling, O’Brien, Wilson utterly defied.The West Indies entered an ODI facing Ireland, in Ireland and exited the Clontarf Cricket Ground at Dublin earlier than expected.Way earlier.The first of the seven ODIs in the three-match series (also featuring Bangladesh) saw Jason Holder’s tourists making a light work of the hosts, who were dismissed inside 32 overs.
If you were a West Indies fan, then with so much spare time at hand, an ideal way to end a jubilant evening would’ve been in watching a re-run of the big blows and the fluent boundaries, with Holder’s men for company.This 196-run win was interesting.Windies’ Hope and Campbell tore down Irish bowlers (Pinterest.com)It was unimaginable and must it be said, it was forged in uncertain conditions, in the sense that not many would’ve actually given the West Indians a chance.After all, their key players were thousands of miles away, engulfed in IPL’s sub-continental turfs, wickets that are night and day different from what they shall be facing soon in England.This was also majestic.
Just like there’s no point of siding with a cliche that one thinks might be getting slightly overdone in news headlines and social media keywords: West Indies blast Ireland, West Indies trounce Ireland.So much of all that Jazz.Anyways, it’s pointless to suggest so early on- albeit West Indies having registered a cracking triumph- are here to topple everybody in the imminent World Cup, just as it would be mindless to reduce the glory of their big win.Not only have the West Indies never beaten Ireland by such a huge margin, but they’ve never done so on an Irish pitch.So when Shai Hope and John Campbell; precision and power, timing and fluence, strokeplay plus flamboyance; joined hands on an assuming opening one-dayer of the tri-series, it were the Irish who flew from Dublin.Sixes were being hit as if an irate crowd was pelting stones.
Boundaries were being found by the middle of the bat as if a hunting pack was keen to close down on some prey.Never before has any ODI contest seen both openers cross 150 whilst batting together.