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Ireland International Matches
Ireland drew with West Indies
2 Day, Ormeau, 3-4 July 1969
Scorecard
Derek Scott

Exhalted by their performance at Sion Mills Ireland held out to draw this two-day match. To do so they had to bat for 260 minutes on the second day against a first innings deficit of 162. At the end one wit remarked that "Ireland had won the series"!

West Indies brought in Davis (who had scored a century in the Lord's Test) and Holder (a fast bowler) for Shepherd and Blair. Ireland won the toss and batted. Many felt that West Indies should have been put in so as to keep them on edge following the previous day's display. Holder bowled Pigot with his second ball. Waters began aggressively but Reith was out for three in Holder's third over. He was caught by Walcott at first slip. 19-2-3. Harrison was next. He hit a single and then three fours before being caught at the wicket off Shillingford. 36-3-13. Waters kept up a good rate although he was missed twice, at leg slip and at first slip. Anderson was not in good form. Davis replaced Shillingford and with his second ball had Anderson caught at leg slip off a poor shot. Two overs later, at 63, Waters was also caught by Foster at leg slip of Davis, who was medium pace. Waters scored 41 in 80 minutes with seven fours. Roberts, bowling seamers, had come on. O'Riordan was in 40 minutes for 14 and was then caught off Davis at backward short leg. 90-6. Shillingford came back for Davis after lunch (the score at which was 100-6) and Holder bowled again also. Both Dineen and Duffy played well but as 115 Holder got one to kick and Lloyd caught Duffy at gully. Foster replaced Shillingford with off spin. Dineen had reached 26 when he rushed at Foster, missed, and was stumped. Hughes struck a few blows but Holder dismissed Goodwin and Colhoun in three balls and the final tally was 126. Holder, fast, tall and hostile, had 5-40 in 14.4 overs.

At 3:17 PM Camacho and Carew began to O'Riordan and Goodwin. The start was slow, only 27 coming in 58 minutes to tea. Afterwards Hughes bowled with Duffy. The score rose a bit quicker. Then O'Riordan came back at 74 and at 87 he bowled Camacho. He had scored 46 in 140 minutes. Davis came in and played his shots very well. In 58 minutes up to the close he scored 44 out of 70. The score at the close was 157-1, with Carew a sedate 56.

In 75 minutes the next morning West Indies added 131 off 20 overs. The start was good for Ireland. Davis misdrove Goodwin to Duffy at extra cover. This was a good diving catch. In the same over, when still on nought, Lloyd was dropped by Goodwin off a hard but straight caught and bowled. It was to prove a costly miss. At 167 O'Riordan bowled Carew. With Butcher and Lloyd together the flood of runs began. 68 were added in 37 minutes of big hitting before Lloyd skied O'Riordan to Reith at slip. He scored 41 in 40 minutes. Foster came in and the run rate increased. The score actually went from 200 to 250 in only 15 minutes. O'Riordan conceded 17 in one over and 37 in his last four overs. Hughes gave away 47 in six overs including 14 in one of them. On came Duffy for O'Riordan. In his second over Butcher was caught at deep mid-wicket by O'Riordan. Butcher's 61 occupied 66 minutes with two sixes and six fours. Foster made 18 not out and 53 were added in 28 minutes. On his dismissal, Butcher declared.

Pigot and Reith began their long haul at 12:25 PM, with close of play not being until 5:45 PM. Holder and Shillingford were the bowlers. Pigot nearly got "a pair" when he lobbed Holder's fifth ball very near gully. It was a lifter. Nine runs came in 42 minutes. Holder bowled four overs and then Davis replaced him for two. Roberts came on for Shillingford and Foster for Davies. Pigot, four, pushed Roberts to silly mid-off. Lunch was taken at 1:15 PM with the score still only nine after 50 minutes. After lunch West Indies did a lot of switching off their bowlers. They mostly relied on the spin of Roberts, Carew, Foster and Butcher (legspin). At 31 Waters was caught at slip by Walcott off Foster. Reith now began to open out and play a few shots. The ball was changed and there was a 13 minute break for a shower. Then, at 3:15 PM, Butcher bowled Reith with the googly and Foster had Harrison caught at leg slip off the handle. Anderson and Duffy set at retrieving the situation. At tea, taken at 3:45 PM, the score was 83 but 10 minutes after tea Carew made one stop and pop and Duffy was caught at short leg. 91-5-14. O'Riordan and Anderson now had a fruitful stand. They added 55 in 49 minutes of good strokeplay. Ireland had to climb to 162 to make West Indies bat again. As time went on this total would almost certainly ensure a draw. O'Riordan scored 35. Then Shillingford returned to replace Camacho who had bowled four overs. In his first over O'Riordan was LBW and in Carew's next over Anderson was palpably LBW. Both scored 35 in good style and, indeed, Reith had earlier reached the magic figure of 35. Next over from Carew, Hughes rushed down the wicket and was bowled. At this point there were 28 minutes left, Ireland were 14 off the necessary 162, and this was the eighth wicket to fall. Tactically it was very bad of Hughes who can bat quite well. Goodwin joined Dineen. Carew stayed on and Roberts replaced Shillingford after two more overs. Time went on and runs clicked up. Eventually Goodwin struck Carew for a boundary which made the score 164 and Ireland were safe. Goodman was caught at long on by Lloyd off the last ball of Carew's same over. Dineen and Colhoun held off the last two overs bowled by Walcott and Lloyd. Dineen's 11 not out occupied 39 invaluable minutes. Carew in 20 overs of off spin had taken 4-42.

West Indies went on to lose the last test at Leeds by 30 runs after they had appeared to be winning when set 306 to win.