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The Associates thread

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To be honest, it may be time for Porterfield to let go of the captaincy. Ireland bowling first and getting hit for 300+ isn't a winning strategy.

Bracewell's an easy target, but I fear he's going to be a scapegoat for decisions that happened years ago that have come back to haunt Ireland. The team barely changed from 2011 to 2015. Having said that, I wasn't convinced about him when he coached NZ, and I'm not convinced now.

I don't think Stirling and McBrine can be in the same team. McBrine started as a bowler, but he's actually a batting A/R, as far as I can tell. Porterfield isn't doing enough with the bat. NOB, Wilson and Poynter in the same team doesn't make a lot of sense in the way they're being used right now. If they are all in the same team, then NOB is there as a batsman, Wilson as captain, and Poynter as keeper.

PLAY CRAIG YOUNG.

I have no idea what's going on with Dockrell. He isn't injured.
 
The bowling lacks penetration in general. Since Johnson retired they haven't been able to lock down on teams as the once did; they are specialists at leak I big scores now. Dockrell from what I can tell seems to have lost from very badly - I do wonder if that county spell on a road at Taunton forced him to bowl too flat. Ireland desperately need to him to find some sort of form.
 
Howard Littlejohn said:
I think they are better placed than Kenya proved to be, and should bounce back without dropping out of the top few associates. Afghanistan and Scotland might be ahead for a while, but it should be close between the three which can only be good for all three.
Click to expand...

I think we are to be honest. The underage structure is good, the domestic senior set up is good and from what I can tell we have good, progressive people running the show at the top level. In the 4 day format I'd still fancy us to beat any of the rest of the associates with the current squad - Joyce, Rankin, Murtagh, Wilson, NOB are all still quality county championship players. The ODI team is suffering a bit but not to the extent that we will be losing consistently to Scotland, Holland etc.

The Speaker said:
To be honest, it may be time for Porterfield to let go of the captaincy. Ireland bowling first and getting hit for 300+ isn't a winning strategy.

Bracewell's an easy target, but I fear he's going to be a scapegoat for decisions that happened years ago that have come back to haunt Ireland. The team barely changed from 2011 to 2015. Having said that, I wasn't convinced about him when he coached NZ, and I'm not convinced now.

I don't think Stirling and McBrine can be in the same team. McBrine started as a bowler, but he's actually a batting A/R, as far as I can tell. Porterfield isn't doing enough with the bat. NOB, Wilson and Poynter in the same team doesn't make a lot of sense in the way they're being used right now. If they are all in the same team, then NOB is there as a batsman, Wilson as captain, and Poynter as keeper.

PLAY CRAIG YOUNG.

I have no idea what's going on with Dockrell. He isn't injured.
Click to expand...

I think Young is injured or just back from injury. As it currently stands Rankin, Murtagh and McCarthy (who's been a shining light of late) are the top 3 pace bowlers. With current team structure I don't see us playing another non-batting pace bowler. McBrine/Dockrell, KOB and Stirling bowl the remaining 20.

Wilson should be captain. Porterfield then gets a few games to get some form back or he's gone. Balbernie getting back to form and fitness would be a huge boost. The you could look at something like:

Joyce
NOB
Porterfield
Balbernie
Wilson
Sterling
KOB
McBrine
McCarthy
Murtagh
Rankin

Which is a little bit more balanced. Ideally you'd have a pace bowler who can at least hold a bat instead of one of Sterling or McBrine but the tail is shocking if you bring in Young for one or the other.

I'd be very much looking

t_94 said:
The bowling lacks penetration in general. Since Johnson retired they haven't been able to lock down on teams as the once did; they are specialists at leak I big scores now. Dockrell from what I can tell seems to have lost from very badly - I do wonder if that county spell on a road at Taunton forced him to bowl too flat. Ireland desperately need to him to find some sort of form.
Click to expand...

If Rankin is fit and in form then the bowling shouldn't theoretically be as bad as it has been. Even the other day Murtagh was 1-38 off 10 and McCarthy 4-62 off 10, which aren't bad figures in a team that got annihilated

Dockrell is back in Ireland and playing regularly, just not being selected.
 

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While I don't dislike Rankin, he can also be enormously expensive, whether or not he's taking wickets. Young is back in the squad, so I don't know why they selected Chase ahead of him. I realise Chase needs the experience more than Young, as the latter is basically ready-made, but they need their best pacemen right now given they're giving up twenty overs with their A/Rs.
 
Think there is becoming a bit of a gulf between Afghanistan and Ireland as far as ODI performances go. Ireland have hardly been competitive recently, mostly incapable of taking wickets whilst Afghanistan can get themselves into winning positions. Not the largest sample size, and could argue all you like about playing South Africa away to Bangladesh away but ...
 
Afghanistan concentrate on limited overs while Ireland concentrate on first class (probably because one is influenced by the subcontinental teams and the other England)

Ireland is also at the end of a golden era in terms of player ages
 
Preston Mommsen has retired to move into the corporate world.

Halfway through the ICup and WCL Championship now, Ireland and Afghanistan - shock of shocks - are out in front of the ICup, and will face each other in the next match. Following them are the Netherlands and PNG, then a gap to Scotland and HK, then another gap to Namibia, and way down in last is UAE.

In WCLC, there's only one point between PNG, Netherlands, HK and Scotland, then below them are Kenya and Nepal, and then a large gap to Namibia and UAE.
 

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Ireland played pretty well over the course of the tournament, but that's an enormous drubbing.
 

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Yoda_ said:
Shafiqullah with a casual 70 off 23 balls (3 x 4, 8 x 6) on the back of Younas Ahmedazi's 104 to help guide Afghanistan A to 4/279 off there alloted 50 overs.

Going to be an interesting chase for Zimbabwe A
Click to expand...
Is Vusi Sibanda playing for Zimbabwe A by any chance? :p
 
Massive win for Afghanistan coming up. Should really be rewarded test status next month rather than wait until a 3 match series against Zimbabwe in 2018 to get it. Can see Afghanistan ranking ahead of West Indies, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh by 2020.
 
Sasquatch said:
Massive win for Afghanistan coming up. Should really be rewarded test status next month rather than wait until a 3 match series against Zimbabwe in 2018 to get it. Can see Afghanistan ranking ahead of West Indies, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh by 2020.
Click to expand...
Don't know about Bangladesh they seem to have really improved
 

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