Irish defy nerves to claim tie

Andre Botha © CricketEurope

Ireland all-rounder Andre Botha admitted the players had struggled to keep their cool in the heat of a dramatic tie with Zimbabwe in their group D World Cup opener at Sabina Park in Jamaica.

The Irish, on their debut in the tournament, posted 221 for nine after Jeremy Bray top scored with 115 but Zimbabwe appeared to be cruising until a late collapse saw them dismissed off the last delivery with just one needed for victory.

“We said to ourselves to enjoy ourselves try to stay calm but you can’t help to be fired up,” said South African-born Botha, who claimed 1-43 off 10 overs.

“I think the pitch was a bit slower in the second half so I tried to bowl a lot of slower balls to take the pace off.

“Hopefully we can get another surprise against Pakistan on Saturday - St Patrick’s Day.”

Ireland captain Trent Johnston paid tribute to the never-say-die attitude of his players.

“I’m very proud of the guys out there. At certain stages of the game we did our best to throw it away," he said.

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“It’s great to give the fans a tie in our first game. The whole squad is a bunch of fighters and we never give in until the game is over.

“We are going to be in here for the next two games trying to fight and, who knows, qualify for the next two games.

“We have got a big game in two days’ time against Pakistan and hopefully we can be competitive in that as well.

“It is going to be absolutely massive. We are going to go in there and give Pakistan one hell of a game.”

Man of the match Bray, speaking about his hundred, added: “The ball was moving around. You had to guts it out and I was lucky to hit a few balls away and was happy enough to get a hundred.”

On the result he commented: “Recently we played quite a few games where it has gone down to the last over and we have come out on the wrong end of the result.

“Eventually you get the lucky breaks and even though it was a tie our backs were against the wall.”

Zimbabwe captain Prosper Utseya blamed errors - both batting and fielding - for allowing Ireland to fight back from a virtually hopeless position.

“We gave away runs at the end and dropped some catches to let them get to 221. Then we kept on losing wickets at crucial times and that is why we tied this game,” he said.

“It comes with experience, the more we play the more people will relax.”