CRICKET:IRELAND SKIPPER Kyle McCallan is still hopeful his side can claim victory over the Netherlands after a frustrating second day of their Intercontinental Cup clash yesterday.
Just 19 overs were bowled after the heavy rain that brought an early end to the first day's play continued into the late afternoon at the ROC ground in Rotterdam.
Ireland added 70 runs without losing a wicket as Andre Botha moved on to 153 not out and with it passed the 1,000 first-class run mark for his country. In doing so he passed Ivan Anderson and Stephen Warke and needs just three more runs this morning to move into second place in the Ireland all-time list ahead of Bob "Ham" Lambert.
Poynter also continued from his promising start, moving on to 36 as the pair brought their fifth-wicket stand to 112 before play ended at 7pm with Ireland on 296 for four.
McCallan is still holding out hope that Ireland can claim victory over the final two days, although the weather may still scupper those plans.
"We're still thinking that way. We're in a very strong position to push on tomorrow morning and then give ourselves as much time as we can to hopefully get 20 wickets," said McCallan.
"There's maybe 200 overs left in the game. We'll probably try to take up a small percentage of them to push on and obviously leave ourselves enough time to bowl them out twice. It's a good wicket so we have to make sure we get the timing of it right."
Botha's first target this morning will be his personal best of 186 in the competition, and he will be hoping his skipper gives him enough time to challenge Eoin Morgan's Irish record of 209.
McCallan praised both players for keeping their heads after a long day waiting for play to start.
"It was a big bonus. Bothsie got a big hundred and Poynts was a good foil for him. We still have plenty of batting left in the tent, so we'll push out hard tomorrow and put the Dutch under a bit of pressure."
