A strange fascination
On Day Four, Bangladesh eventually managed to send back Ireland's remaining batters to complete their win, but has this week in Sylhet shown us something about the Irish Cricket psyche.
Bangladesh 587 for 8 dec (Mahmudul 171, Shanto 100, Humphreys 5-170) beat Ireland 286 and 254 (McBrine 52, Stirling 43, Murad 4-60, Taijul 3-84) by an innings and 47 runs
It’s never easy sifting through the ashes of a test match. So much has gone into it from the teams. It’s physically draining but especially mentally so.
The dour (but extremely effective) New Zealand test match opening batter Mark Richardson spoke of hoping for rain on match days towards the end of his career. That was when he knew his time was up. Richardson was a test specialist and retired at 33 with grey hairs a plenty.
In the wake of Ireland’s defeat by an innings and 47 runs at Sylhet plenty of questions can be asked. Should they have gone with three spinners instead of two? Is it better to blood Cade Carmichael as an opener now? Tom Mayes or Jordan Neill? Do you prefer light up bails or regular?
One thing that can’t be faulted is the sheer will, fight and effort you’ll see with an Irish test cricket performance. And fight with the bat they did on Day Four with a little bit of fun from Matthew Humphreys, Barry McCarthy and Jordan Neill.
Andy McBrine reached his fifth half-century and became Ireland Men’s second-highest run-scorer in Tests while being our highest wicket-taker in the format. There was also Andrew Balbirnie in his baggy navy cap playing out 63 balls with a busted finger.
They Died with Their Boots On
Test cricket inspires brave performances. It just does. There’s Chris Woakes coming out to bat in the fifth test of a blockbuster series against India with a dislocated shoulder in a sling under his jumper - his last appearance for England. There’s South African captain Graeme Smith walking out to bat with a broken hand against a lightning quick Mitchell Johnson to save a test.
At Lords in 2023 we nearly had our own moment when James McCollum almost went out in a protective boot to try help McBrine reach a hundred at the home of cricket after badly injuring his ankle. It was Scra who convinced his close mate not to do so.
That fighting psyche suits Irish teams. It comes from being on a small island at the very edge of Europe. It comes from almost always being the underdog in sport. It’s one of our football teams taking down Portugal two zip in a must win game to try make a world cup qualification play-off.
All of this is to say that Irish fans seem to have a strange relationship with Test Cricket. Tests are very expensive to host. They’re not the easiest to attend or watch with work and family commitments, not to mention all the other sports we have going on.
It’s tricky to quantify vibes but compared to a regular ODI or T20I there was certainly extra chatter online despite this match not being part of a wider context or rivalry. The possibility of adding to the previous three wins on the bounce had also gone out the window on Day Two. And let’s not gloss over the 3am starts on cold, dark mornings.
Commercially-speaking, what do you do with all of this. Test cricket is a very long format of sport that almost doesn’t make sense in our current world. Yet there’s possibly a special, if not strange, place for it in Irish hearts. Go figure.
Thankfully there’s another test match for Ireland just on the way.
Onto Mirpur for Take Two.
