Match: Ireland v Pakistan, 2nd ODI (Two match series)
Venue: Clontarf Cricket Club, Dublin, Ireland.
Date & Time: 26th May, 2013, 14:45 PST / 09:45 GMT
Overall Rivalry: Pakistan 2 wins, Ireland 1 win, 1 tie
Weather Report: Partly cloudy with a chance of rain in the afternoon. A high of 16C is expected with winds from the SSW up to 20 km/h. Dark clouds will threaten all day with chances of rain.
Ground Report: Clontarf Cricket Club was founded in 1876, the year USA celebrated the first 100 years of its existence and the pint was for less than 1p in the Kingdom. This was a year before the first England vs Australia Test match.
The pitch in game one lacked pace and had a lot of cracks on the surface. It was expected to aid the spinners a lot more than it actually did. A total of 266 appeared to be a good one until it was chased down in 47 overs by a resolute Irish batting line. The team batting first will have to benchmark themselves closer to the 300 mark to feel more secure. However, 250 should still be a competitive total.
Game On: In the last couple of years, Ireland has seemed to pull away from the likes of Kenya, Canada and Netherlands, their traditional competitors within the ICC associate nation program. The quality gap between Ireland and the Test playing nations of Zimbabwe and Bangladesh is now perhaps smaller than between the Irish and the rest of the associate countries.
The Clontarf Cricket Club had a buzzing crowd on Thursday where the spectators hung around during the start-stop routine in the first half of play, the Pakistan innings was interrupted four times by rain. With slightly better conditions expected on Sunday afternoon, a full house crowd will be supporting the home team with a few Pakistani flags fluttering as well.
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