Silly Point of View

New Zealand tour of Ireland New Zealand's European journey in the summer of 2026 has started on a positive note after they wrapped up an innings win against the hosts Ireland at Belfast in a four-day one-off Test match. The result was never in doubt however the cricket purists would have expected a better fight from the host nation. Ireland had prepared for this match by organizing a domestic First Class match a few days ago as most of the New Zealand squad arrived straight after a run of T20 International and franchise cricket. The visitors showed no sign of rust winning the match easily by an innings and 79 runs. Kiwi captain Tom Latham surprised everyone by leaving out each of their first choice seam-bowling attack as Kyle Jamieson and Will O'Rourke were not included in the starting XI and Matt Henry was ruled out due to a low grade hamstring strain. Nathan Smith and Zakary Foulkes shared the new ball with Blair Tickner and Ben Sears to follow. The top six were on expected l...

New Zealand tour of Ireland The Kiwis are bracing up for a busy period of International cricket on foreign shores. Before donning the whites on their tour of England for a three-match series, they will stop over for some red-ball practice in Ireland. A four-day Test match is scheduled to take place between both the teams in Belfast starting this Wednesday.  With the ICC laying out a plan to include all twelve full-member nations in the next World Test Championship, these rare fixtures against strong teams are extremely crucial for a side like Ireland. The Irish have a short-lived history in this format since debuting against Pakistan in 2018. They lost their first 7 matches but then completed a hat-trick of wins against Afghanistan and Zimbabwe only to be pegged back by a 2-0 defeat in Bangladesh last November. They have generally given a good account of themselves whenever they have played in this format even coming close to a shock win against England at Lord's in 2019 only to fa...