News

George Dockrell was one of Ireland’s star performers last week against the West Indies, taking three wickets in the win. He talks to www.crickeireland.ie about that victory and previews the match against the UAE on Wednesday.
Speaking of the West Indies match, Dockrell is happy with the start it has given Ireland in the tournament.

“It’s nice to start as well as we did, both personally and as a team, obviously there’s some big players and some big hitters in that West Indies team so to have grabbed a few wickets was really pleasing.

“It definitely gives you confidence when you’re nailing your skills and you’re bowling to those good batsmen on what was a very good pitch as well. That gives me a lot of confidence going into this UAE game.”

Dockrell pointed out that his performance in that game was helped by having the opportunity to play against some of the West Indies players before, particularly Chris Gayle.

“I’ve played against him in the Champions League in 2011 in India and he hit me for quite a few sixes then, so I knew I couldn’t really stray too far up to him into his reach, which I did one of the times and he did hit me for six.

“I thought I bowled quite well to him and pulled it back from him and got the wicket in the end, so I was really happy about that.”

The squad had the chance to relax for a couple of days after the West Indies victory before heading to the Gabba to focus on facing the UAE.

“It was a nice start but there are a lot of games to come, both personally and as a team so looking forward to getting into it now.

“It’s a fantastic stadium, really looking forward to seeing what the atmosphere is like. There’s been a good few Irish arriving over the past few days.

“Also it’s quite a big pitch and ground so it will be interesting to see how that plays out, I suppose I’ll be looking forward to it as a spinner, trying to use the big boundaries and trying to get people to hit me.”

The game against the UAE starts at 3.30am GMT on Wednesday morning. You can follow all the action live on www.cricketireland.ie, and you can show your support on twitter by using the hashtag #BackingGreen.

Yes
Connaught