Ireland and New Zealand in Twenty20 warm-up

Ireland and New Zealand will gain valuable practice ahead of the ICC World Twenty20 when they contest a warm-up match at Derby on May 27.

Irish Cricket chief executive Warren Deutrom said: “We’re delighted to be preparing for our ICC Twenty20 World Cup campaign against such masterly practitioners of the short-form of the game as New Zealand.

“Of course, the County Ground will be familiar to many of our county-based players as well as to our coach, Phil Simmons, who spent many summers just down the M1 at Leicestershire.

“We hope that the Derbyshire public comes out in droves during the half-term holiday to watch an excellent contest and, of course, Irish fans will be hoping this is the start of another terrific campaign when the team can once again create more than a few upsets and grab the cricket world’s attention.”

New Zealand team manager Dave Currie added: “New Zealand are grateful that Derbyshire has agreed to host this game against Ireland. It is an important part in our preparation for the ICC Twenty20 World Cup and we look forward to an exciting afternoon.”

The match will give the Derbyshire public the opportunity of seeing world international stars such as Brendan McCullum, Jacob Oram, Jessie Ryder and Daniel Vettori in action as well as checking on the progress of an Ireland side who stunned the world in 2007 by qualifying for the Super Eight stage of the World Cup. The match gets underway at 2pm.