Ireland stunned England in their second Group 1 match of the Men’s T20 World Cup to win by 5 runs in a rain affected game at the MCG stadium in Melbourne, Australia.
Ireland were sent into bat and dominated the powerplay, pushing themselves to 59-1 after six overs. Paul Stirling and Andy Balburnie took a liking to the English seam
bowlers in particular Chris Woakes and Sam Curran who went for 41 and 31 runs from their three overs respectively. Mark Wood would prove to be expensive as well, going at
more than eight an over but his three wickets helped start the Irish collapse from 103-3 to 157 all out. The pick of the English bowlers was Liam Livingstone who took 3-17 in
three overs.
In reply, England got off to the worst possible start when captain Jos Buttler was out for a second ball duck, nicking the left arm seam bowling of Josh Little to the keeper. Hales
and Stokes would follow soon after leaving the English at 29-3 after 5.1 overs and a mountain to climb with rain on the horizon. Dawid Malan’s knock of 35 from 37 balls
would settle the nerves of his teammates but ultimately left the run rate too high for Moeen Ali and Liam Livingstone to reach. They did try though with Ali’s quickfire 24 runs
from 12 balls looking like it could see England over the line but it was too little too late.
Ireland would win by five runs by the Duckworth Lewis Stern method. The other scheduled game of the day New Zealand vs Afghanistan was cancelled
without a ball being bowled as the downpour of rain continued at the MCG stadium.(JC)
Summarised Scores:
Ireland 157 (Balbirnie 62, Wood 3-34, Livingstone 3-17)
England 105 for 5 in 14.3 overs (Malan 35, Little 2-16)
Ireland win by five runs on DLS method
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