CRICKET: IRELAND COACH Phil Simmons believes his side's defeat to Scotland in yesterday's Tri-Nations Series should act as a "wake-up call" after the hosts chased down 320 to seal an exhilarating, five-wicket victory and snap a seven-game losing streak in the fixture.
It was a record chase for the Scots in a One-Day International after Paul Stirling scored his third century in his last four ODIs to set up an imposing target.
But in the end the home side got there with nine balls to spare to record both their highest ODI score and a record chase.
Ahead of next month’s showpiece clash with England in Clontarf, Simmons pointed to his side’s attitude in the field as having fallen below the standards set during the World Cup.
“It’s a good wake-up call for us, to let us know that even though we scored 300, that it doesn’t matter who you are playing, you still have to do all the basics properly. And we didn’t do the basics in the field properly at all,” said Simmons.
“It’s been like that for a few games now, in the field we are half of what we usually are. I don’t know whether we need to get back into what we used to do before the World Cup or what, but we’ve just got to look at what happened today and see where we can fix it and where we can make that change.”
Ireland’s failure to ram home the advantage gained after Stirling’s blistering, 83-ball century and half-centuries from the Clontarf duo of Alex Cusack and Andrew Poynter also cost them dearly in the end, as a total of over 350 looked possible at one stage.
Scotland, though, who were far the more impressive side in the field, taking six wickets and conceding just 56 runs in Ireland’s last 10 overs.
It certainly gave them a lift going into lunch and they kept the momentum on a Grange wicket that was getting slower by the minute.
Fraser Watts and Kyle Koetzer got them off to a brilliant start, with a stand of 129 in the opening 20 overs.
George Dockrell made the breakthrough when he trapped Watts leg-before for 54, while Boyd Rankin ended Coetzer’s hopes of making the second century of the day when he clean-bowled him for 88 at the start of his third spell.
Rankin also saw off Calum McLeod after he had made 26, with wicketkeeper Gary Wilson holding on to a skier, while Dockrell had Preston Mommsen caught by Trent Johnston for 20 to leave the Scots needing 89 off the last 10 overs.
They found just the man for the job in Richie Berrington as he took advantage of the short boundary on one side of the ground to clobber a 20-ball half-century, with Scotland taking 65 runs off the five batting powerplay overs.
Berrington fell for 56 in the 47th over to Mooney, but Josh Davey hit the same bowler to the cover boundary in the penultimate over to wrap up a memorable win.
