Ireland, Afghanistan set to play nine matches in India

[Malcolm Merlyn]

Quote

Ireland and Afghanistan on Monday (July 25) confirmed their participation in a bilateral three-match Twenty20 International series, five One-Day International and a four-day ICC Intercontinental Cup fixture in India next March. All the nine matches are set to be played at The Greater Noida Cricket Stadium, which is the adopted home ground of Afghanistan.

The two teams have played against each other in seven ODIs till date, with Ireland winning four and Afghanistan three. The recently-concluded series in Belfast finished with both sides winning two matches each.

John Bracewell, Ireland's head coach, was happy with the announcement and felt that it will give his players good exposure. This will be a great opportunity for the squad to test themselves in nine matches across three formats," Bracewell said. Games between the sides are always competitive and I expect more of the same in this series. Its always good for a teams development to test themselves in different conditions, and theres no better place than India to do that.

Im sure the younger players in particular will benefit from playing in subcontinental conditions and it will enrich their cricketing experience. It certainly promises to be an exciting months cricket and one which the players will relish, he added.

Ireland are currently placed 12th in the ICC ODI Rankings, two places below Afghanistan. Over the last five years, both teams have witnessed a meteoric rise in world cricket and have upset some mighty teams during this course of time. Time and again, they have appealed to the International Cricket Council (ICC) to arrange more matches with top teams across the world in order to allow their cricketers to grow.

Richard Holdsworth, Cricket Ireland's Performance Director, welcomed the fixtures announcement and said, This tour is exactly what we have been pushing for in recent times, where the national team plays across all three formats over a four-five week period, just like the full members have been doing for years.

Both sides are aspiring to become Test countries and to organise bilateral tours on a regular basis in series with context rather than focusing mainly on tournament cricket.

These matches will not only be part of the pathway to Test cricket for both countries, but also part of the World Cup qualification pathway. We know the Afghanistan Cricket Board shares our views and we look forward to the series being as highly competitive as the recently-completed ODI series in Ireland.

Ireland, who have time and again, caused major upsets in ICC events, are languishing at the 15th position in the Twenty20 International rankings, having played only 11 T20 matches in the last one year. Afghanistan, who have played 22 T20s in that period, are placed 9th - the best among Associate Nations, and above two Test-playing countries.

Shafiq Stanikzai, the CEO of Afghanistan Cricket, shared similar thoughts and said, We are really looking forward to hosting the Irish team. This will be a great contest between well-suited teams, continuing their close rivalry, and will also count towards qualification for the Cricket World Cup in 2019.

FIXTURES:

T20Is:

1st T20: March 8, 2017 in Greater Noida Cricket Stadium, India

2nd T20: March 10, 2017 in Greater Noida Cricket Stadium, India

3rd T20: March 12, 2017 in Greater Noida Cricket Stadium, India

ODIs:

1st ODI: March 15, 2017 in Greater Noida Cricket Stadium, India

2nd ODI: March 17, 2017 Greater Noida Cricket Stadium, India

3rd ODI: March 19, 2017 in Greater Noida Cricket Stadium, India

4th ODI: March 22, 2017 in Greater Noida Cricket Stadium, India

5th ODI: March 24, 2017 in Greater Noida Cricket Stadium, India

 

http://www.cricbuzz.com/cricket-news/81552/ireland-afghanistan-set-to-play-nine-matches-in-india

 

[maniac]

First man to get 3 200's or first man to breach 300 in a ODI....wonder what will happen first 

[velu]

10 minutes ago, maniac said:

First man to get 3 200's or first man to breach 300 in a ODI....wonder what will happen first 

provided maagi is not served in the stadium

 

[Vilander]

yayeee....lots of cheap runs....

[Nova]

1 hour ago, maniac said:

First man to get 3 200's or first man to breach 300 in a ODI....wonder what will happen first 

1 hour ago, velu said:

provided maagi is not served in the stadium

36 minutes ago, Vilander said:

yayeee....lots of cheap runs....

 A hattrick of FAIL

This is bilateral series between Ireland and Afghanistan in India, not against India. 

[velu]

1 minute ago, Nova said:

a hattrick of FAIL 

This is bilateral series between Ireland and Afghanistan in India, not against India. 

 

misleading title

 

[sscomp32]

LOL its a bilateral series between them because Noida is the adopted home ground for AFG. 

I guess no one here watched the intercontinental cup match held between AFG and NAM in noida earlier this year.  

[sscomp32]

But i do wish an Indian team made of IPL superstars (like the one we sent to BD in 2014) should play 1 match each with both AFG and IRE. 

That would be great .  

[Adi_91]

5 hours ago, sscomp32 said:

But i do wish an Indian team made of IPL superstars (like the one we sent to BD in 2014) should play 1 match each with both AFG and IRE. 

That would be great .  

IPL stars to BD? When did this happen?

[rkt.india]

10 hours ago, Nova said:

 A hattrick of FAIL

This is bilateral series between Ireland and Afghanistan in India, not against India. 

[sscomp32]

4 hours ago, Adi_91 said:

IPL stars to BD? When did this happen?

The year when binny made the bowling records.  

Infact here on ICF the match thread title was BD v IPL XI .

 

[Stuge]

Inauguration time for greater noida stadium ahah

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk

[TheWall]

Its just a bilateral series. Maggi missed a great chance to prove his talunt.....

[sscomp32]

20 minutes ago, Stuge said:

Inauguration time for greater noida stadium ahah

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk

No . One match already happened. AFG v NAM 4 day intercontinental trophy match. 

 

LOL DD Sports wrote test match but its a first class only.  

As usual a non asian team bundled against spin and shehzad scored a century. 

Edited July 27, 2016 by sscomp32

[Stuge]

No . One match already happened. AFG v NAM 4 day intercontinental trophy match. 

 

LOL DD Sports wrote test match but its a first class only.  

As usual a non asian team bundled against spin and shehzad scored a century. 

Wow ,wasn't aware of that.

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk

[velu]

we should support Afghanistan .. their cricket as well as the country..

we should pick few of their cricketers , so of them are massive hitters   

[Lala]

Didnt they actually have a better venue than India???    I think neutral venue should have been used like UAE. Irony that shows the power of the ICC (Indian Cricket Council) 

[sscomp32]

15 minutes ago, Lala said:

Didnt they actually have a better venue than India???    I think neutral venue should have been used like UAE. Irony that shows the power of the ICC (Indian Cricket Council) 

LOL UAE with not even a dead bird watching. AFG v NAM had more crowd than some of the tests in UAE  

[Lala]

8 minutes ago, sscomp32 said:

LOL UAE with not even a dead bird watching. AFG v NAM had more crowd than some of the tests in UAE  

That indicates most of Indians are job less and no work to do rather watching useless uninteresting matches. even people of AFG or IRE may not be that much interested at all 

[Adi_91]

35 minutes ago, Lala said:

That indicates most of Indians are job less and no work to do rather watching useless uninteresting matches. even people of AFG or IRE may not be that much interested at all 

On a non-cricketing point, who is jobless is indicated by the respective's country's economies. I don't want to get into Pakistan's, because it is still being determined if there is one.