Live Online Video: Ireland Vs. Pakistan Cricket World Cup 2015, Must-Win For Upstart Irish [UPDATED]
Live online video will bring fans Ireland’s most important cricket match in the country’s history, when Ireland faces Pakistan Sunday in the final group stage match of the 2015 Cricket World Cup at the Adelaide Oval in Adelaide, Australia.
Links to watch video of the crucial Pakistan Ireland Cricket World Cup match live online can be found below.
The significance of the match to Ireland could not be more clear. Barring a belief-defying upset of West Indies by the United Arab Emirates, or a weather-related washout, in the earlier Sunday start, Ireland will advance to the World Cup quarterfinal only with a victory over Pakistan.
Lose, and they may have played their final World Cup match — ever.
With the International Cricket Council determined to cut the 2019 World Cup field down to 10 teams from 14 — over the objections of some of cricket’s greatest retired superstars — Ireland will face a nearly impossible task to qualify for the next World Cup.
“The chance to break into the quarterfinals of a World Cup definitely makes it the biggest game we’ve ever had,” Ireland batsman Ed Joyce told the BBC Friday.
“We have a cause that we fight for. We are trying to grow the game at home and show the ICC the folly of keeping the next World Cup to 10 teams, not allowing nations like us ourselves a fair chance to get in.”
But Pakistan, though they are nearly assured a spot in the quarterfinals — they must lose by a huge margin to risk being surpassed by West Indies in the net-run-rate tiebreaker — also have a powerful motivation to win Sunday’s match.
In the 2007 Cricket World Cup, lightly-regarded Ireland sent Pakistan home with a shocking three-wicket win in Kingston, Jamaica. But the real nightmare for Pakistan came when the team’s coach, Bob Woolmer, was found dead in his hotel room the day after the stunning loss, under circumstances that remain unclear.
Pakistan batsman Younis Khan now says his team is driven to defeat Ireland as a testament to Woolmer’s memory.
“This is surely a very emotional game for me and all of us,” said Khan, who is the current Pakistan side’s only link to that 2007 team.
“I remember Bob a lot, he contributed so much to Pakistan cricket. Hope we can win this game and some more in the World Cup. There would be nothing better to dedicate to Bob’s memory.”
A list of live online video sites for all Cricket World Cup 2015 matches can be accessed at this link. The match begins at 2 p.m. Sunday in Adelaide, which is 3:30 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time and 11:30 p.m. Saturday night, March 14, United States Eastern Time.
UPDATE, March 14: A list of live, legal online Cricket World Cup video streams can be found at this link. The India-based site CricHD will stream the Ireland vs. Pakistan match at this link.
For a $99.99 fee, the Ireland vs. Pakistan match and live online video for all knockout stage matches in the 2015 Cricket World Cup will be streamed by ESPN at this link. Subscribing to the ESPN package also allows the option of viewing matches on a TV using the Roku set-top box, as well as on mobile devices by downloading the ESPN Cricket app. Check back with this page as the match draws closer for more options.
[Image: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images]
