Ben Gardner on an innings from Kevin O’Brien that saved his side from humiliation on Test debut, and showed the world and his team-mates that Test cricket wasn’t beyond them.
No.4 in Wisden’s Test innings of the year, No. 5 in Wisden’s Test innings of the year
Kevin O’Brien: 118 (217 balls, 12x4s), Ireland v Pakistan, Only Test, Malahide, Dublin, May 11-15
Normally when we talk about pressure, a game, a series, or perhaps even a career might be on the line. Rarely do players have to play with the weight of justifying their country’s status as a Test nation on their shoulders.
Yet that is exactly what O’Brien had to contend with as he began his second innings on Ireland’s Test debut against Pakistan, with his side 95-4, still 75 runs behind their opponents, following on after being bundled out for 130 in their first innings in Test cricket, and in danger of being humiliated further on an occasion many members of the team had spent a career building up to.
With a nudge and a nurdle, he showed that if you strip away the depths of tradition, the grandiosity of the occasion, and the eyes of the world upon you, all that you’re really left with is a batsman and a bowler, and that if you keep out the next ball, and the one after that, soon enough one will come that you can nurdle for one or two, or perhaps bunt for four, and in a way that’s all there is too it.
For all he had done in the years preceding to ensure Ireland would get the chance to play a Test, perhaps the greatest gift Kevin O’Brien gave Irish cricket is showing them that this format, this glorious thing they had toiled all their careers for, isn’t really something worth fussing about.
