News

Captain Conor O’Gorman and Sean Currie put on a mammoth partnership of 157 against Jersey as Ireland U15 cruised to their third victory from three matches at the ICC European U15 Championships at Rugby School.
Captain Conor O’Gorman and Sean Currie put on a mammoth partnership of 157 as Ireland U15 cruised to their third victory from three matches at the ICC European U15 Championships at Rugby School.
Full Final Scorecard

Having lost Jamie Grassi (4) and Sean Murphy (7) early on, Harry Tector and Currie took Ireland 45-2 at 10 overs when the players were forced off due to heavy rain. Tector (23) caught behind first ball back after the resumption of play, which brought Ireland skipper O’Gorman to the crease to join Currie.

Together the pair batted with great maturity rotating the strike well, as they steadied the Irish ship and set about putting their side on course for a big total. Currie’s 84 runs came off 111 balls and included seven boundaries and a maximum, before he was caught by William Packham off the bowling of Thomas Hanby, leaving the field to a standing ovation from the spectators present at Rugby, with Ireland on 202.

O’Gorman followed soon after run out by Harrison Carylon for a 77 to leave Ireland on 208-5 in the 39th over; his special 89-ball knock included five 4s and two 6s.

With the Ireland innings reduced to 43 overs after the rain delay, they stumbled through their last 4 overs losing Murphy and Nelson cheaply also in the 39th. Josh Little hit a couple of big blows, but the loss of two further wickets saw Ireland finish on 235-9.

Ireland’s defence got off to a mixed start with Stuart Nelson removing George Moore early-on, but the bowlers’ lines were inconsistent.

With more rain looming, and D/L coming into play, a good take down the leg-side by Grassi off Graham Kennedy to dismiss Ward swung things in Ireland’s favour with Jersey on 64-2. And when the rain did arrive, the Jersey innings was reduced to 34 overs, 193 the revised target.

The Ireland bowlers emerged from the break in inspired mood, with Harry Tector (3-18) picking up three quick wickets, which along with a brilliant run-out from Sean Currie left Jersey in trouble on 78-6 in the 25th over.

That soon became 102 all out as O’Gorman (1-12), a run out from Kennedy to remove top scorer Bourne for 27, and a wicket for Aaron O’Neill (1-8) reduced Jersey to 88-9, before Morgan Topping sealed the 90 run D/L win with another run-out.

With three top class catches and a run-out to go with his brilliant 84, Sean Currie put in a man-of-the match performance. Speaking after the match, Currie was delighted with his first competitive outing with the bat for Ireland. He told www.cricketireland.ie: “This was the first time I’ve batted for Ireland, and I really enjoyed batting with Conor – we rotated the strike well and ran well together, and we didn’t let the bowlers settle.

“It didn’t spin as much as we were expecting so we were very aggressive and it paid off. Now we can concentrate on the next game. We need to be patient against Scotland as they’ll be a good side and probably the toughest game so we need to be patient with bat and ball and hopefully that will pay off.”

Harry Tector took three wickets with his off-spin, talking to www.cricketireland.ie, he said: “It was a good win, Conor and Sean batted really well rotating strike and pushed on really well. It was quite tough early on they bowled well and the pitch was giving some assistance, but we were quite patient and eventually got a good score. We probably went too hard at it at the end and lost wickets in clusters, but overall it was a good batting performance.

“In the field we were excellent, Sean Currie and Graham Kennedy were brilliant, it was the best we’ve fielded all tournament. Physically it was tough playing the third game in a row, and some guys got jaded but as a team we supported each other and did well. It was difficult coming on and off with the rain but we dealt with it well.

“We are placed well, and playing with confidence and against Scotland we are looking to just be consistent and repeat what we’ve been doing and hopefully that will be enough on Friday.”

With tomorrow assigned as a reserve day and Thursday a rest day for Ireland, that game against Scotland takes place on Friday at 11am when ICC Europe will again be providing Live Scoring via CricHQ.

Full Final Scorecard

Table after Round Three: