PCA Masters XI v Ireland
Thursday 28th May 2009, The Sir Paul Getty Ground, Wormsley
In one of a number of warm-up games for the forthcoming ICC World Twenty20 tournament, the PCA Masters XI took on Ireland at the beautiful Sir John Paul Getty ground in Oxfordshire. The Irish fielded a strong team, as did the Masters with several former England players and a couple of guests - Kieron Pollard from the West Indies and Reinhardt Strydom from Ireland. Winning the toss, Ireland elected to bat first.
In a throwback to the early nineties, the PCA bowling attack was headed up by Philip DeFreitas and Darren Gough and both bowled accurately and with pace to take a wicket in each of their respective opening overs; Kieron Pollard was also on fire in the field, catching Jeremy Bray off DeFreitas and running out Nigel Jones. At one point, the Ireland innings was struggling on 39 for 4 from 7 overs.
The fight back was bound to come and it was lead by John Mooney whop struck an outstanding 57 from only 38 balls; great support came from Regan West with 21 before becoming one of Peter Such's 3 wickets in a superb closing spell of 3-17 from his four overs.
The Irish side completed their 20 overs on 139 for 9 on a good batting wicket, leaving the Masters XI with a good opportunity for an early season scalp.
Former England opener Jason Gallian and Reinhardt Strydom opened up for the Masters and put on a good opening partnership of 49 within 8 eight overs. Nadeem Shahid and Kieron Pollard continued the progress and the Masters eventually overhauled the Ireland target with four balls to spare with Pollard finishing off aggressively with 43 not out from only 26 balls.
So a win for the Masters XI by 6 wickets and no doubt a valuable warm up session for the Ireland team before the forthcoming major tournament
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