Toss Ireland chose to bowl v Netherlands
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William Porterfield thought the pitch was “a little bit tacky,” from all the rain © IDI/Getty Images
A dead rubber in a qualifying tournament disrupted by rain and in a State where most attention has been drawn by a grandstanding chief minister: superficially, there was not much reason for Ireland and Netherlands to skip out of bed in Dharamsala.
But spring out of bed they did for their last match in Himachal Pradesh, driven as ever by the need to advertise their worth and an entrenched sense of anger towards a sport that limits them to occasional token appearances and a lack of expansionist philosophy in the higher echelons of the ICC.
If they could repeat the drama of their World Twenty20 match in 2014, when Stephan Myburgh swept Netherlands to victory in Sylhet, a result from which arguably Ireland have never quite recovered, they would be worth watching.
Ireland won the toss and chose to bowl. Pre-match drizzle had relented, although some pessimists were talking of snow. “The covers have been off for quite a while but it is still a little bit tacky,” said William Porterfield. “We need to lift our game in all three areas.”
Considering the weather, and the slow low pitches, perhaps it is fortunate that India v Pakistan has been removed from Dharamsala, which has delivered few upbeat memories despite its picture-postcard setting. There was snow on the peaks and Ireland and Netherlands were feeling the chill.
Netherlands 1 Stephan Myburgh, 2 Wesley Barresi (wk), 3 Ben Cooper, 4 Tom Cooper, 5 Peter Borren (capt.), 6 Roelof van der Merwe, 7 Pieter Seelaar, 8 Mudassar Bukhari, 9 Ahsan Malik, 10 Timm van der Gugten, 11 Paul van Meekeren
Ireland 1 William Porterfield (capt.), 2 Paul Stirling, 3 Gary Wilson, 4 Niall O’Brien (wk), 5 Kevin O’Brien, 6 Andrew Poynter, 7 Andy McBrine, 8 George Dockrell, 9 Max Sorensen, 10 Tim Murtagh, 11 Boyd Rankin
David Hopps is a general editor at ESPNcricinfo @davidkhopps
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo