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Ireland International Matches
Ireland lost to Australia by 121 runs
1 Day, Ormeau, 4 July 1968
Scorecard
Derek Scott

It was a lovely day at Ormeau but the wicket was wet from a terrible storm on the previous day. Eventually, in the evening, Gleeson, the Australian spinner, enjoyed the drying wicket. Mackenzie came into the team and captained Australia for the first time. Redpath, Walters, Gleeson and Renneberg replaced Chappelll, Sheahan, Hawke and Lawry. Mackenzie replaced Connolly. The crowd of Belfast was better than in Dublin and again Freeman entertained them with 70 scored in 62 minutes.

Mackenzie won the toss and batted. This time Redpath went in with Cowper but in Torrens's second over Goodwin took a fine right-handed catch at leg slip to dismiss the left-hander. Inverarity and Redpath added 25 in 29 minutes before Inverarity cocked a ball from Goodwin to Pigot at forward short leg. Now came Waters. In 25 minutes he scored 13 quietly. Meanwhile Leng had had three overs at Torrens's end. Then Monteith came on. The first ball of his second over Waters lunged forward and sent a catch to Torrens, the only slip. 66-3. Before lunch Joslin was caught off Goodwin. At lunch, after 90 minutes, the Australians were 83-4, Redpath 40, Freeman 0.

Redpath went to his 50 with a snicked 4 to Monteith's left at slip off Goodwin. He had batted for 100 minutes. Freeman was now going strong. 51 were added for the fifth wicket of which he made 34. At 134 Redpath was caught at mid-off by Waters off Goodwin. He scored 57 out of 134 in two hours. With Mackenzie in Freeman arrived at 50 in 45 minutes. Duffy was given his first ball at 150 but it was the reliable Goodwin who got Mackenzie. O'Brien caught a skier running from mid-on to mid-wicket. 156-6-2. Freeman was now batting very well. He had pulled and driven Monteith for sixes and now he hit Duffy for three successive fours. They were his last scoring strokes. He hit Goodwin on the up to mid-wicket and McCall took a good catch. 174-7-70. Freeman batted 62 minutes and faced 60 balls. Taber and Mallett were now in. Torrens came back for Duffy. Off his first ball Mallett give a chance to O'Brien at slip and in the same over Pigot dropped Taber at mid-on, going for the catch one-handed. At 3:25 pm, after bowling 24 successive overs, Goodwin came off. He had taken 5-68 in a great spell. Leng replaced him at 193 Taber, hitting at Torrens, was caught by Goodwin at square leg off the bottom of the bat. 193-8-12. At 198 Mallett was lucky when he skied Leng towards long-on and O'Brien and McCall got in each other's way. Mallet and Gleeson added 20, mostly off Leng. Then Leng bowled Mallett and, next over, Torrens had Gleeson caught at the wicket. 230 in came in 187 minutes. Despite the innings ending at 3:46 pm tea was not taken.

Mackenzie's first ball had McCall caught at leg slip and Renneberg bowled Waters at seven. Pigot, who was playing well, was joined by O'Brien and the score at the tea interval was 21-2. After tea Freeman took over from Mackenzie. The last ball of his first over was a full toss which Pigot drove back and Freeman caught an easy catch at the second attempt. Pigot had scored 17 out of 23. He batted well and his dismissal was most disappointing. After bowling four overs Freeman gave way to Gleeson. Anderson reached at his third ball and was caught at slip. 30-4-2. O'Brien and Monteith brought the score to 41. Then O'Brien mistimed a pull off a bad ball from Gleeson and was caught at short square leg. Two runs later and Monteith did exactly the same to Mallett. 43-6.

He and Colhoun now added 13, all scored by Duffy! Then Colhoun returned a gentle full toss to Gleeson. Next over Gleeson had Duffy caught at slip. 65-8. With Goodwin and Torrens in Redpath and Inverarity were given a bowl. Goodwin swung the bat and hit four fours. Eventually Gleeson came back and bowled both Torrens and Leng. Gleeson had taken 6-24 in 9.1 overs. With his unusual grip and mixture of breaks he is a difficult bowler to read and play.