AUSTRALIA: Balbirnie’s half-century and disciplined bowling helped Ireland pull-off surprise victory over England. Buttler, the English skipper, won the toss and chose to bowl first.
Ireland Innings:
After a brief spell of showers between the toss and the start of the innings, which delayed the beginning of Ireland’s innings by 18 minutes, another period of rain-induced breakage of play at the haloed Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Mark Wood (34/3) quickly dismissed Paul Stirling (14 off 8 balls) after being hit for a six over the third man, two deliveries earlier. Sam Curran, the fielder at the boundary, tried to lob the ball back into the field as he was tumbling over the ropes, but despite his best efforts, he made contact with the boundary just as he was about to throw the ball back.
Besides the early setback, the Ireland batsmen, Andrew Balbirnie (62 off 47 balls) and Lorcan Tucker (34 off 27 balls), played sensible yet attacking cricket while scoring runs at a brisk rate as Ireland reached 59/1 in the powerplay overs.
Tucker took on Sam Curran (30/2) in the sixth over, smashing the pacer for 14 runs. Balbirnie switched gears and smashed Chris Woakes (41/0) for 18 runs in an expensive 10th over from the paceman.
The batsman hit two boundaries and a six in the over, taking the Irish total to 92/1 after 10 overs.
The momentum of the Ireland innings slowed down when Tucker was dismissed in an unlucky fashion.
Balbirnie pushed a quick delivery from Adil Rashid (24/0) back to the bowler, who managed to get a finger onto the ball before it crashed into the non-striker’s stumps and Tucker was well short of his crease.
Harry Tector (0 off 2 balls) fell victim to the sheer pace of Mark Wood and was caught behind after he poked at a length delivery outside of the off stump.
Balbirnie soon reached his 8th half-century in T20Is in the 14th over. In the next over, he slammed Curran for a six over square leg, collecting 11 runs in the process.
Liam Livingstone claimed the prized wicket of Balbirnie, who was caught at backward square leg in the 16th over.
Livingstone caught George Dockrell off the next ball to bring England right back into the game.
Gareth Delany denied the Englishman a hat-trick as he jammed the ball back to the bowler. Curtis Campher (17 off 11 balls) played a brief cameo, hitting three boundaries before becoming Mark Wood’s third victim.
Ireland kept losing wickets at regular intervals, with Mark Adair (4 off 4 balls) hitting Livingstone straight to Sam Curran at deep mid-wicket.
Sam Curran struck twice in the penultimate over, dismissing Barry McCarthy (3 off 3 balls) and Fionn Hand (1 off 2 balls) in the space of five deliveries.
Joshua Little (0 off 1 ball) was caught behind off the bowling of Ben Stokes (8/1) as Ireland’s innings ended at 157 all-out in 19.2 overs with Gareth Delany (12* off 10) not out at the other end.
England Innings:
In their defence of 158, Ireland were given an early breakthrough by Joshua Little, who had Jos Buttler caught behind the stumps off the second delivery of the innings without scoring. He returned in his second over to get rid of Alex Hales (7 off 5 balls), who top-edged a pull and the ball ballooned up in the air.
Mark Adair called for the catch and moved to his left at short fine to latch onto the ball. The last of the powerplay saw Fionn Hand castle Ben Stokes (6 off 8 balls).
Hand claimed a wicket in his first legitimate delivery in the World Cup as Stokes missed the line of the delivery and the ball seamed in and onto the stumps. England struggled to 37/3 at the end of the powerplay.
The England batsmen couldn’t find easy runs with the Irish bowlers keeping a tidy length and making it difficult for stroke play.
The boundaries dried up as runs came through extras and running between the wickets. At the end of 10 overs, England was 63/3.
Two catches were dropped in two deliveries off the bowling of George Dockrell in the 11th over by Adair and Delany.
Dockrell had his man two balls later as Delany finally latched on to the catch offered by Harry Brook.
Ireland got their fifth wicket in the form of a struggling Dawid Malan (35 off 37 balls), who was caught at third man by a sliding Fionn Cook off the bowling of Barry McCarthy in the 14th over.
Moeen Ali targeted Gareth Delany’s final over as he hit the spinner for a six and a boundary, collecting twelve runs in three deliveries before rain interrupted the play again and covers came over the ground.
As per DLS, England was 5 runs behind the benchmark score. With no signs of the rain subsiding, the game was called off at 18:54 local time and Ireland emerged victorious in the rain-affected game.
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