On the third day of the one-off Test against Bangladesh, Ireland made a spectacular comeback, and they can thank wicketkeeper-batter Lorcan Tucker, whose debut century helped the visitors go into stumps with a 131-run lead.
On the third day of the one-off Test against Bangladesh, Ireland made a spectacular comeback, and they can thank wicketkeeper-batter Lorcan Tucker, whose debut century helped the visitors go into stumps with a 131-run lead.
On the back foot for the major part of the Test, Ireland finally turned the tables with two productive sessions to finish the day.
Tucker chose to play in his first Test to demonstrate his batting potential in the sport’s most elite format after making his first-class debut for Leinster Lightning in the Inter-Provincial Championship in June 2017.
Tucker played in 14 first-class games but failed to score in the three-digit mark until facing Bangladesh. After taking 94 balls to get to his fifty, he brought up his hundred off just 149 balls before eventually getting dismissed.
“I thought Tucker batted out of this world. I thought it was a fantastic knock. The way he used his feet against our spinners, the way he got into our channel against the seamers, he took it to us,”
Bangladesh pace bowling Coach Allan Donald said after the day’s play.
“He counter-punched and he had a resilient partner at the other end that looked, you know, it was a very, very good partnership and it’s a fantastic hundred.”
Even though he didn’t break into a wild celebration when he reached 100, Tucker admitted after the day’s play that it was a significant milestone for him.
“I don’t like to be too high or too low. I try to be consistent the whole time with cricket and life. It was a great day. So trying to enjoy it for what it is,”
said Tucker.
“It is pretty special. It wasn’t something that I thought would happen today. We were under a lot of pressure. We tried to take it ball-by-ball and bat for as long as we could. It was very special to get a personal reward. The team is also in a great position. We are looking forward to tomorrow.
“You are trying to get into a space where you think you can bat for long periods. We are not quite used to the tempo (of Test cricket). We haven’t played that much multi-day cricket. So just trying to slow down, and not be afraid of dot balls, a maiden, or a series of maidens in a row. Just trying to get into the mindset of things happening slowly and I know the temperature is hot but to get into that mindset, you have to forget about the weather.
“This morning we tried to take our time and then hopefully as the day goes on and Bangladesh tires, you can take advantage of that, to try to increase your scoring rate. It worked pretty well. I think it will be a template for us going forward,”
he said.
Tucker added that he was not keen to go hard against them due to their accuracy. Instead, he hoped that the playing field would greatly support them tomorrow as they attempted to push for a victory.
“Bangladeshi spinners are very accurate. It felt like it was going to be hard to score more than two or three runs and an over against them. I thought there was an opportunity to score against the seamers with the field up,”
said Tucker.
“The wicket is playing well. It will break up a little bit more. Maybe something magical happens overnight. We know we can take wickets to win the game tomorrow. We hope to give Bangladesh a real target to chase. We think all the pressure is on them,”
he concluded.
