Thank god for Andy McBrine

Another half-century amidst a collapse avoids total embarrassment for Ireland

📸: Barry Chambers

Andy McBrine has passed 50 on six occasions in Test match cricket. Batting from six to eight in the Irish order, four of those half-centuries have come with McBrine at the crease with the team’s total at less than 100.

Even the two occasions where Ireland had reached three figures were hardly solid platforms. Ireland hit 123 and 162 with more than half their side gone. The other team totals when McBrine walked to the crease, to later walk off with 50+ to his name, read 16, 38 and 31.

So walking out to bat with Ireland 34-5 today was a familiar feeling. A few hours later, after another century stand with his partner in crime Mark Adair, Ireland hadn’t avoided the ignominy of the follow-on, but they did escape the embarrassment of failing to pass 100.

In the end, McBrine was stranded on 73, the tail failing to guide him through to a 100. Echoes of Lord’s 2023 were impossible to miss, McBrine unbeaten on 86 as James McCollum contemplated batting with an injured ankle to get the Donemana man to three figures. Less memorable perhaps due to the off broadway location, but no less important was McBrine’s highest Test score, an unbeaten knock of 90 against Zimbabwe at Bulawayo.

There, much like today, he fell short of a maiden century through little fault of his own.

Ireland have had seven century stands in their Test centuries. Five of them have been for the seventh wicket. Three have been with Messrs McBrine and Adair at the crease. The nation’s three highest Test stands read: McBrine and Adair at Lord’s, McBrine and Adair at Bulawayo, McBrine and Adair at Stormont 2026.

They are an odd yet endearing couple, Adair’s height and penchant for clearing the front leg complemented by the diminutive McBrine playing barely a shot away from his body. As all left-handers do, he flayed width through the off side once seeing off the Kiwi new ball threat. He took on the short ball - often seen as a weakness - granted with an element of good fortune. But luck fell upon a man who always looked to score despite the chaos caused by top order technical deficiencies and unsympathetic umpiring.

McBrine has to deal with the same challenges as his teammates atop the line-up. He too is faced with a dearth of red ball cricket, a lack of practice against the moving Dukes. Yet his reputation as a man for a crisis shows no signs of abating.

Certainly, batting in the lower order against the softer ball helps. There are plenty of times he has been in early enough to still face the early overs challenge, while he has often stuck around long enough to face another shiny ball past the 80 over mark.

At what point does he earn the status of Ireland’s technically most proficient batter. Or is he just better equipped within the chest and between the ears for the hard yakka?

“I think he is technically a very good player,” opined Gary Wilson, the Irish batting coach. “I think because he’s got the record he has doesn’t mean it would be the right thing to move him up the order, if that’s what you’re getting at.”

It wasn’t. But plenty of fans and ex-players thought McBrine should have kept the pads on when New Zealand enforced the follow-on. Treat the change of innings like a drinks break. It was an unlikely move given the captain was always going to back his batters with a second chance.

“He plays the ball on its merit very, very well,” said Wilson when prodded again for why McBrine seems better than most at surviving the moving ball. “That’s probably a downside to his game in white ball cricket, he would say he doesn’t quite have the game to expand. He literally watches the ball and tries to watch every ball the best he can. That’s what makes him so good in red ball cricket.

“There is probably an element to it that the ball is older when he bats but that’s not to take anything away. He’s as good a number seven all-rounder anywhere if you look at his record. Just a really good, solid Test match batter.”

And what of the balance between ticker and skill. Yes, there is plenty of technical proficiency. But does McBrine’s mental make-up mean the scrap brings the best out of him?

“I think you know the answer to that,” chuckles Wilson. “He’s just one you want in the trenches with you, nothing fazes him. He doesn’t care if it’s Jimmy Anderson or someone who’s played one Test match, when they’re at the top of the mark he’s literally watching the ball and trying to hit it. He plays a simple game, it’s as if he’s playing in the back garden in Donemana.”

Intriguingly, when it was pointed out that McBrine was yet again stranded short of a hundred, Wilson pointed to an area of improvement. He also discusses the short ball, an area where McBrine has been targeted. A handful of pulls today either just about cleared fielders in close and landed short of men in the deep. Another day sees a half-chance carry, or an attempted duck inside the line flick a glove - as Adair learned to his detriment. Still, you have to take the luck when it comes.

“If there is something he could do a bit better, is to manage that tail or look to maximise what he can do when he’s batting with the tail,” sad Wilson. “But it’s very different when you’ve got guys who are allowing him to get off strike and bowl at the other guy.

“He’s done a lot of work on the short ball. He’s recognised there was an area he could work on. But again it’s a mentality, he was never in the changing room thinking I have an issue with it or I’m scared of it. He just watches the ball and if it’s short he either pulls or tries to get out of the way. If it’s full he blocks or if it’s a bad ball he tries to hit it. His game plan is as simple as that.”

The occasion today could have done with McBrine lifting the helmet and raising the bat. Given his tendency to rise above in difficult situations, if it one day happens, you’ll struggle to find a more popular maiden Test century.