(Cricket news) The toss was won by Ireland’s captain Paul Stirling, who chose to put India in to bat first due to the warm, mostly cloudless weather. Yashaswi Jaiswal was out caught by Curtis Campher for 18 off 11 balls by Craig Young, the first Men in Green wicket to fall as the visitors sped to 29 in the fourth over. Three balls later, Barry McCarthy dealt India a second blow by dismissing Tilak Varma for one run, leaving India at 34-2 in the fifth over.
Sanju Samson (40 from 26 balls) and Ruturaj Gaikwad (58 from 43 balls) rallied after Ireland started to make inroads into the Indian batting order. They pounded the boundary with 10 fours and a six to set up the anticipated final overs onslaught. Samson in particular was having no trouble locating the straight lines. He dragged on a ball that kept low from Ben White just as he appeared to be poised for a game-changing hit. Gaikwad was back in the pavilion immediately after reaching his second T20I half-century after hitting Harry Tector at long on with India at 129-4 with five overs remaining.
Overs 16 to 18 went by modestly, with only 14 runs coming from them, but the tide then turned in the final two overs as the Indian batters took 42 from the last 15 balls. 22 runs came from the 19th by McCarthy, while 20 runs – and a wicket – from the last from Mark Adair as Rinku Singh (38 from 21 balls) and Shivam Dube (22 from 16 balls) smashed five sixes in a death overs assault on the home side attack. With that late boost, India finished on 185-5 from their 20 overs.
Needing a positive start in the run chase, Ireland stuttered losing three wickets in the powerplay to be 31-3 after 6 overs – Stirling (0), Tucker (0) and Tector (7) falling cheaply, each looking to play aggressive strokes on a pitch that was becoming a little slower as the day progressed.
Andrew Balbirnie (72) and Campher (18) steadied the ship with a 35-run partnership from 27 balls, before George Dockrell entered the fray at 63-4 at exactly the halfway mark of the innings. Balbirnie brought up his 10th T20I half-century as he and Dockrell began to up the run rate. The pair put on 52 in five overs before an unfortunate mix-up saw Dockrell run out for 13.
After two crowd-pleasing sixes from Balbirnie, the opener fell feathering a ball outside off from Arshdeep Singh, and Ireland’s cause looked lost at 123-6. Adair provided a late flurry of runs (23 off 15 balls), but Ireland couldn’t sustain the rate and eventually fell 33 runs short.
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