Kevin O'Brien is the most capped Irishman in any sport. Since his debut in 2006, he has played 364 matches and counting to date. He has scored 8594 runs at an average of 28.56, which includes 38 fifties and six centuries. He has also claimed 275 wickets at 28.08. He has also taken 172 catches and effected 20 run outs.
The favourite game for me is obviously the CWC game against England in 2011 in Banglaore.
Firstly it's an amazing feeling playing in a World C upgame, let alone against England in the cricket crazy country like India.
And to perform personally on the night was special.
I remember so much about the game, Pietersen and Strauss putting on a big partnership for the first wicket, hurting my knee in the first innings, watching Bell and Trott putting England in a very strong position.
But the way Trent Johnston and John Mooney bowled in the final 10 overs was what we needed to keep the scoreboard in check.
It was still a big total to chase, but a few days before England tied with India chasing a similar score.
When Cusy came to bat, I remember saying to him, 'let's take the Powerplay, and have a crack! If we get bowled out for 170, it doesn't matter!'
The next five overs was chaos, myself and Cusy were just chancing our arm, few knicks past Prior, inside edges, catches falling just short or fielders, and a few shots coming out of the middle!
With 15 overs left I knew we were going to win.
They were so flat, stunned, and had no answers to our punches.
Ed'd postscript: What followed this win was the craziest 3 or 4 days in media demands. So much so that Phil Simmons said to me, "Mr Chambers (I knew I was in trouble when he didn't call me Baz!). That is it. No more media for 48 hours!"
I had three phones for this tournament and they started ringing after John Mooney hit the winning boundary and just rang incessantly. We had learned from the previous World Cup and had planned for such an eventuality. Team sponsor RSA had hired a room and Pat Nally, Warren Deutrom and my newly-hired assistant Ger Siggins co-ordinated the mayhem. Everyone wanted Kevin and the emails just kept coming too.
The different coloured hair by the players was a result of our involvement with Today FM Shave or Dye campaign which we fronted - it raised over a million euros as a pink haired Kevin, a blue-bearded Phil and a purple haired skipper William became the media darlings.
A never to be forgotten experience and one that will be hard to better in the next 1000 games. Or maybe not ...
Round | 765 |
Toss won by | England |
Umpires | Aleem Dar (Pak) - BF Bowden (NZ) |
Umpire notes | Match referee: RS Mahanama (Sri Lanka) |
Scorer notes | EM Power |
Home Side | (neutral) |
Player of Match | KJ O'Brien |
Comment | 765/5 - World Cup 2011 - Group B Match 2 of 6 Match referee: RS Mahanama (Sri Lanka) KJ O'Brien: 100 off 50 balls (13 x 4, 6 x 6) - Fastest 100 in World Cup history. WB Rankin - 50th Cap |
Points Awarded | England 0, Ireland 2 |
Match Report | here |
Batsman | Fieldsman | Bowler | Runs | Bls | 4s | 6s |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
AJ Strauss* | b GH Dockrell | 34 | 37 | 2 | 1 | |
KP Pietersen | c NJ O'Brien | b PR Stirling | 59 | 50 | 7 | 2 |
IJL Trott | b JF Mooney | 92 | 92 | 9 | 0 | |
IR Bell | c PR Stirling | b JF Mooney | 81 | 86 | 6 | 1 |
PD Collingwood | c KJ O'Brien | b JF Mooney | 16 | 11 | 0 | 1 |
MJ Prior+ | b DT Johnston | 6 | 5 | 1 | 0 | |
TT Bresnan | c DT Johnston | b JF Mooney | 4 | 8 | 0 | 0 |
MH Yardy | b DT Johnston | 3 | 6 | 0 | 0 | |
GP Swann | not out | 9 | 5 | 1 | 0 | |
SCJ Broad | dnb | |||||
JM Anderson | dnb | |||||
extras | (b1 lb2 w20 nb0) | 23 | ||||
TOTAL | 8 wickets for | 327 |
FOW |
---|
1-91(AJ Strauss) 2-111(KP Pietersen) 3-278(IR Bell) 4-288(IJL Trott) |
5-299(MJ Prior) 6-312(PD Collingwood) 7-317(MH Yardy) 8-327(TT Bresnan) |
Bowler | Overs | Maid | Runs | Wkts | wd | nb |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
WB Rankin | 7 | 0 | 51 | 0 | 4 | - |
DT Johnston | 10 | 0 | 58 | 2 | - | - |
AR Cusack | 4 | 0 | 39 | 0 | 1 | - |
GH Dockrell | 10 | 0 | 68 | 1 | 5 | - |
JF Mooney | 9 | 0 | 63 | 4 | 1 | - |
PR Stirling | 10 | 0 | 45 | 1 | - | - |
Batsman | Fieldsman | Bowler | Runs | Bls | 4s | 6s |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
WTS Porterfield* | b JM Anderson | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
PR Stirling | c KP Pietersen | b TT Bresnan | 32 | 28 | 5 | 1 |
EC Joyce | st MJ Prior | b GP Swann | 32 | 61 | 3 | 0 |
NJ O'Brien+ | b GP Swann | 29 | 36 | 2 | 1 | |
GC Wilson | lbw | b GP Swann | 3 | 14 | 0 | 0 |
KJ O'Brien | run out TT Bresnan/MJ Prior | 113 | 63 | 13 | 6 | |
AR Cusack | run out PD Collingwood/SCJ Broad | 47 | 58 | 3 | 1 | |
JF Mooney | not out | 33 | 30 | 6 | 0 | |
DT Johnston | not out | 7 | 4 | 1 | 0 | |
GH Dockrell | dnb | |||||
WB Rankin | dnb | |||||
extras | (b5 lb16 w12 nb0) | 33 | ||||
TOTAL | 7 wickets for | 329 |
FOW |
---|
1-0(WTS Porterfield) 2-62(PR Stirling) 3-103(NJ O'Brien) 4-106(EC Joyce) |
5-111(GC Wilson) 6-273(AR Cusack) 7-317(KJ O'Brien) |
Bowler | Overs | Maid | Runs | Wkts | wd | nb |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
JM Anderson | 8.1 | 1 | 49 | 1 | 1 | - |
SCJ Broad | 9 | 0 | 73 | 0 | 2 | - |
TT Bresnan | 10 | 0 | 64 | 1 | 2 | - |
MH Yardy | 7 | 0 | 49 | 0 | 2 | - |
GP Swann | 10 | 0 | 47 | 3 | - | - |
PD Collingwood | 5 | 0 | 26 | 0 | - | - |