ICC World Cup 2011: Irish Luck and DRS howlers

MS Dhoni bowled a bouncer at the ICC

The Irish rode their luck—the other night—to throw a spanner in England’s attempt to progress to the quarter-finals.

Kevin , the other O’Brien—younger brother to Niall who rang the curtain call on Pakistan’s exit in the 2007 World Cup—hit the fastest World Cup century ever off just 50 balls.

He was cool, calm and collected. He was to the manor born.

If there was any doubt that talent exists in the lower echelons of the ICC, Kevin O’Brien and Ryan ten Doeschate blew those vacillations to smithereens.

IPL barons, take note.

Ireland’s performance presents a strong case against restricting the 2015 World Cup to Test-playing nations.

A swallow does not make a summer though. It is to be seen how the Gaelic fare against India and South Africa.

Can the burly railwayman’s pyrotechnics lift Irish spirits and carry them soaring into the knockout rounds?

The Netherlands performed exceedingly well against the Poms in their first game. (Why is it always the English?) They seem to have lost their way since.

The O’Brien family will celebrate.

They are a sporting family. Father Brendan played 52 ODI games and captained the national side. Sister Ciara represented her country in hockey.

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The Decision Review System has come in for a huge amount of flak following Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s outburst in a press conference.

Terming the system, an ‘adulteration’ of human oversight, the Indian captain targeted the 2.5m clause ,put in place to compensate for the failings in Hawkeye’s technology.

While Indian television channels raised a hue and cry about the decision, the discerning fan has focused on the lack of penetrative bowling and lacklustre fielding as reasons for the tied game against England.

The match between Pakistan and Canada demonstrated the effectiveness of the system. Yes, there will be mistakes. Yes, there are flaws in the technology. But the good far outweighs the bad.

The India-England tie was a league encounter;there was no outrage on display by fickle and fanatical Indian fans. How zealots would have behaved had this been the knock-out rounds is any busybody’s guess.

I would like to believe that the Indian sporting fan has matured and no longer believes that cricketing prowess is the sole criterion that decides or shrouds national glory.

For those who are fed up with the surfeit of cricket served up on television channels, there is relief when India take on Serbia this evening at Novi Sad in the Davis Cup. The matches begin 6:30 pm on Neo Sports.

Viktor Troicki clashes against Rohan Bopanna and Janko Tipsarevic plays Somdev Devvarman in Friday’s match-up.

Quote of the day:2 is not equal to 3, not even for large values of 2. – Grabel’s Law

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