Irish team would have to apply for extra leave

But for fast bowler Trent Johnson, who came out of retirement and Alex Cusack the rest are amateur and hadn't planned for anything beyond the 10th of this month. Now they need to for Ireland, once again, has stunned the world.

Both the sides practiced along each other at Lady Bay and looking at the intensity of the two teams, it was obvious none of them were looking at Wednesday's match as one of only academic value.

Both the teams were at the ground at the appointed over even though it was an optional nets for them. Even Virender Sehwag, who has been a cold turkey on this tour so far, padded up and turned up at the nets, his first stint on this tour, though it lasted a mere dozen balls.

Sehwag squared up to Ishant Sharma and Praveen Kumar but after a dozen deliveries, left the nets and spoke to his skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and coach Gary Kirsten. The way then he went inside the "hut" and laid up on the physio's table, even getting a tablet-aid from physio Nitin Patel, did suggest that all was still not well with the Nawab of Najafgarh.

Missing from the Ireland's net though were the O'Brien brothers - Niall and Kevin. Niall is probably nursing an ankle injury but his effort of Tuesday - a sumptuous stumping and a hurricane 25 fro 40 balls which included three leg-side sixes of Mashrafe Mortaza - has raised his stature to that of a hero in front of his mates. Kevin is "as good a hitter as anyone in the game" according to brother Niall and he did live up to the billing with 39 runs from a mere 17 deliveries.

India have nothing to lose but Ireland a world to gain if they put it across the Indians at Trent Bridge on Wednesday. The underdogs didn't show any fatigue from yesterday and are decidedly pumped up for Wednesday's game. "If you can't get up and enjoy a game against the world champions, there's no point coming here...we'll give it everything we've got on Wednesday," Niall had said yesterday.

By the looks of it, the famous Irish spirit is running well and deep within the side.

Teams (from): India: Gautam Gambhir, Rohit Sharma, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan, Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Ishant Sharma, Zaheer Khan and Praveen Kumar.

Ireland: William Porterfield (capta), Andre Botha, Jeremy Bray, Peter O'Connel, Alex Cusack, Trent Johnson, Kyle McCallan, John Mooney, Kevin O' Brien, Niall O" Brien, Boyd Ramkin, Andrew White and Gary Wilson.

Umpires: Nigel Long and Ian Gould.

Third umpire: Billy Bowden

Match referee: Chris Broad

The game will start at 10 p.m IST.