Retirement in sports is never a pleasant thing, as it means an end to a journey of a player who is admired by many. Cricket is no exception as players enjoy a massive support amongst the fans and the end of a career of a player brings a myriad of emotions. Cricket has grown leaps and bounds, and recently test cricket has seen two new teams in Afghanistan and Ireland. One player from Ireland who had earned global appeal was young dynamic batter who goes by the name Kevin O Brien.
Kevin O Brien calls time on his career –
Ireland cricket in its infancy was put on the map by their charismatic captain Trent Johnston. Then there were two players both players who put the little nation on the cricketing map in Niall and Kevin O Brien. The 38 year old youngest of the two brothers on Tuesday decided to call time on his cricket career after nearly 16 years of international cricket. Taking to social media, thew 38 year old Kevin O Brien decided to share the news of his retirement with the people as he moves into the back scenes of cricket.
Thanks ☘️ pic.twitter.com/E4335nE8ls
— Kevin O'Brien (@KevinOBrien113) August 16, 2022
Standing up to the Pakistani challenge –
The first time Kevin O Brien shot to the spotlight was when he scored an unbeaten 16 in the 2007 world cup game against Pakistan. Chasing 133, Ireland saw Mohammad Sami pick early 2 wickets including that of future England captain and world cup winner Eoin Morgan. It was Kevin’s older brother Niall who steered the ship before more wickets fell. Kevin batted for 52 balls to score 16 and win a famous game for Ireland.
Taming the English –
2nd March, 2011 saw England and Ireland lock horns as the English had came off the back off a huge high scoring in the same venue of Bangalore against India. Strauss with 34 and Kevin Pietersen with 59 were followed by 92 by Trott and 81 by Bell to help England reach 327. Batting at 6, Kevin O Brien came out his bat swinging as he scored the fastest ever world cup century off 50 balls to score 63 ball 113 with 13 fours and 6 sixes. Ireland won the game by 3 wickets with 5 balls to spare to cause a huge upset.
O Brien played 3 test matches and is the only century scorer for Ireland, as he scored 258 runs from the 3 games with an average of 51. He played 153 ODI games scoring over 3600 runs with 2 centuries and 18 half centuries. In T20 cricket he played 110 games for Ireland scoring 1973 runs with one century and 5 fifties with a strike rate of 130. In all he played 258 T20 games and score over 4500 runs, he also picked 114 wickets in ODI cricket, 58 wickets in International T20 and 121 T20 wickets in total.