HARARE, Zimbabwe – Ireland Wolves captain Matthew Humphreys spoke at the final training session for his side before they take on Zimbabwe A at the Harare Sports Club today.
Humphreys, 24, has captained the Northern Knights in the Inter-Provincial Cup and Trophy, as well as the Strikers in the Emerald Challenge.
Ahead of the first day of play, he said:
“It’s obviously a special thing to be asked to captain your country at any level. And it’s something I’m looking forward to over the next few weeks. It requires a lot more thinking – especially in red-ball cricket. There is so much tactically that goes on throughout the game as the game develops, it can be really challenging at times. But the squad you have can also make it smoother and this is a good group of guys. Many of us are pretty tight – we’ve played a lot of cricket together – so it’ll be good fun.
“The Harare Sports Club is a pretty cool place to play cricket and the facilities there are always good. We have played a fair bit of cricket here before, so we’d be kind of familiar with the conditions.
About the change from white-ball to red-ball cricket:
“There’s obviously a lot of crossovers in terms of the skills required, but we’ll have a slightly different mindset for red-ball cricket, which is something that we will need to get our heads around quickly. We don’t play a huge amount of red-ball cricket, so having these two four-day matches coming up is a great opportunity for us. That will challenge the lads, though, and they will need to be attritional over the next couple of weeks. We will all need to get our heads down and work hard across the two games.”
When looking at the batters selected for the Wolves, the common theme is that they are known as positive, attack-minded players – Humphreys talks about how that will feed into how the team goes about things.
“Naturally, as we play so much white ball cricket, it follows that our guys are probably slightly more attack-minded than would traditionally be the case for a red-ball squad.
“I’ll just be encouraging the guys to go out and play their natural game. Some guys will score freely, but, others will be patient. That’s the challenge of red-ball cricket – during periods of pressure you have to be good enough to absorb it, then equally, when there is an inevitable moment when the pressure is lifted, then you need to try and apply the pressure back on the other team.”
FIXTURES
Ireland Wolves tour of Zimbabwe
- 5-8 November: Ireland Wolves v Zimbabwe A – 1st Four-day match (Harare Sports Club; start time: 8am* (GMT))
- 12-15 November: Ireland Wolves v Zimbabwe A – 2nd Four-day match (Harare Sports Club; start time: 8am* (GMT))
- 18 November: Ireland Wolves v Zimbabwe A – 1st ODM (Old Hararians Sports Club; start time: 7.30am* (GMT))
- 20 November: Ireland Wolves v Zimbabwe A – 2nd ODM (Old Hararians Sports Club; start time: 7.30am* (GMT))
- 22 November: Ireland Wolves v Zimbabwe A – 3rd ODM (Old Hararians Sports Club; start time: 7.30am* (GMT))
- 25 November: Ireland Wolves v Zimbabwe A – 4th ODM (Harare Sports Club; start time: 7.30am* (GMT))
- 27 November: Ireland Wolves v Zimbabwe A – 5th ODM (Harare Sports Club; start time: 7.30am* (GMT))
*All times shown are Irish time
All matches will be shown live on the Zimbabwe Cricket YouTube channel. Additionally, scores will be available through Cricket Ireland’s website.
SQUADS
Ireland Wolves’ squad for Zimbabwe (Red-ball matches)
- Matthew Humphreys (c)
- Mark Adair
- Ben Calitz
- Cade Carmichael
- Chris Defreitas
- Stephen Doheny
- Jake Egan
- Gavin Hoey
- Matthew Hollard
- Liam McCarthy
- Byron McDonough
- Jai Moondra
- Jordan Neill
- Tim Tector
- Reuben Wilson
Ireland Wolves’ squad for Zimbabwe (White-ball matches)
- Matthew Humphreys (c)
- Ben Calitz
- Cade Carmichael
- Chris Defreitas
- David Delany
- Gareth Delany
- Stephen Doheny
- Gavin Hoey
- Matthew Hollard
- Josh Little
- Liam McCarthy
- Byron McDonough
- Jai Moondra
- Jordan Neill
- Tim Tector
