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Putting my Irish hat on for a while - Bangladesh and Ireland play a 3 ODI series over the next week (March 18th, 20th & 22nd), and with Ireland already having a good record against lower-ranked teams, this could see Ireland move well out of Zimbabwe's reach in the ODI rankings. Also worth noting that Ireland have 12 ranking ODIs scheduled between now and October:
March - 3 ODIs in Bangladesh
July - 1 ODI v New Zealand in Aberdeen
August - 3 ODIs v Kenya in Belfast
October - 5 ODIs v Kenya in Nairobi

The ICUs chief executive stated a year or so ago that his stated aim was to see Ireland gain Test status within 10 years. Since then, they've gained a place on the ODI rankings & reached the Super Eight at the 2007 World Cup, and won the Inter-Continental Cup in two successive seasons (and look likely to win it for a 3rd this year). They don't meet some of the criteria for Test status yet (no domestic first class structure, for a start) & have had some financial problems, but on playing terms, who'd bet against them meeting that goal?

Anyway. For this series: they'll have a much harder time beating Bangladesh on their home soil than they had in the West Indies, but I'd predict a 2-1 Ireland series win.

Read in some other thread that Ryan Ervine is already qualified to play for Ireland. Any chance of seeing him turning out for them in this series???

CrimsonAvenger wrote:Read in some other thread that Ryan Ervine is already qualified to play for Ireland. Any chance of seeing him turning out for them in this series???

None whatsoever. If he hasn't even had a look in for the Logan Cup matches in the past few years he won't be playing ODI's for Ireland any time soon.

brmtaylor.com admin wrote:None whatsoever. If he hasn't even had a look in for the Logan Cup matches in the past few years he won't be playing ODI's for Ireland any time soon.

Squad for this tour was announced a while before Ervine moved here, too.

Domestic season here starts towards the end of April - I'd expect him to play the season out, and have to show some decent form, before he catches the selectors' eyes. Unlike a certain other board I could think of, Cricket Ireland tend not to mess with the squad without good reason.

Ireland are in a bit of trouble at the moment 3for 58.
Morgan i reckon is one of Irelands best batsman.

Finished on 185/7 - which if some of the scores posted in the Bangladesh v South Africa series are anything to go by, could be a half-decent total. We'll see. First match was always going to be difficult for Ireland, though, as it's their first match in that part of the world and the conditions will be completely new to them.

Morgan is easily their best - and it's always a worry whether Middlesex will release him for a series. ICC rules may say that counties have to release a player if they're selected for national duty, but when it comes to Morgan they've been known to pressure him to make himself unavailable. In case his career "suffers" by him not being available for them, y'know.

Ireland outclassed. Not much surprise to be honest. Bangladesh are a much more experienced side in terms of ODIs and Ireland were playing in very unfamiliar conditions for them. 2 games to try and put it right, but I think my money would be on Bangladesh again.

Better today - Ireland started off well with both ball & bat before falling away, which was very disappointing, but at least the batsmen fell trying to chase the target, and not just trying to bat out the innings. Here's hoping for a consolation win on Saturday.

I suppose because of the political reasons we couldn't have a series against Ireland either home or away, but there is no doubt in my mind that we would clean sweep them, just as Bangladesh will clean sweep them.

3-0 to Bangladesh. Ah well.

On the bright side, it means Ireland are now only 2 points ahead of Zim on the ODI rankings - much more catchable than they were before this series...