Fantasy Bob's fantasies about the minnows snapping with piranha like jaws at the flesh of the bloated boaters of the major cricketing nations lie in some disrepair. Although at times in the England-Netherlands match it was hard to say which was the minnow and which the bloater, other outings have been disappointing from the underdog supporter's point of view. Kenya, who don't look like they could give Carlton 4 a game, have so far excelled themselves only in at least achieving a record in bowling the highest number of wides at a World Cup in their thumping by Pakistan on Wednesday. Canada were streets behind Sri Lanka and maybe should have kept at the ice hockey. So can we look forward to Ireland doing something on Friday? Ireland are of course the nearest thing to Scotland in this competition so Fantasy Bob is firmly behind them.
The pressure is all on Bangladesh who must win to retain any real interest in the competition. Has their morale been dumped by the Indian assault on them on Saturday? They have lost 2 times to the Irish in their 6 meetings so far. The Irish should be the hardest of the minnows since the significant majority of their side are full tiem cricketers - and this is step on from their last giant killing exploits in 2007. So for Ireland there is everything to play for. Get Tamim Iqbal, deal with the spin and the pace of the wicket, and they could be in there, their batting looks quite solid with Ed Joyce back from the dark side. Indeed, within themselves Ireland, may be thinking that the matches against England and W Indies are their real tests.
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| Porterfield |
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| Porterfield |
Ireland are led by Gloucesteshire's William Porterfied a serious talent who has delivered serious runs in serious situations before. Seriously. But as an Aberdonian the name of Porterfield rings lots of bells with FB. Ian Porterfield was appointed manager of Aberdeen FC following the loss of Alex Ferguson to Manchester United in 1986. He is therefore the last man on earth, teh universe even, to have replaced Ferguson. Porterfield was with Aberdeen for 2 years with moderate success as Ferguson's great team began to break up. But they were still a force to be reckoned with. After Aberdeen Porterfield had a peripatetic career including 2 spells with Chelsea (before Russian billionaires turned their heads) being sacked in his second spell in 1993. A string of foreign appointments followed including Zambia, Saudi Arabia, Zimbabwe, Oman and Trinidad and Tobago. His last appointment before his death in 2007 was with Armenia.
Has this anything to do with Ireland v Bangladesh? No - except that as a player Ian Porterfield was a giant killer. He scored the winner in 1973 FA Cup Final for second division Sunderland against the then mighty Leeds United. So can his namesake be the same giant killing branch of the family?
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