(Cricket news) Ireland Men came up just four runs short in the tumultuous series finale at Chelmsford, losing to Bangladesh despite half-centuries from Paul Stirling, Andrew Balbirnie, and Lorcan Tucker as well as a four-wicket haul from Mark Adair. 

Balbirnie won the toss and elected to bowl first at Chelmsford on a cloudy morning. Josh Little and Adair, Ireland’s new ball duo, immediately posed a threat. Adair had a close call on a knockout. The moment Little, who needed a little longer than Adair to find his radar, plucked an edge from the bat of Tamim Iqbal, Rony Tadulkar turned down off his sixth delivery, and Balbirnie squandered the opportunity at slip.

Tadulkar nicked an extended heave attempt through to Tucker behind the stumps during Adair’s second over, leading to a well-deserved early wicket. In his first seven balls at the crease, Bangladesh number three Najmul Hossain Shanto twice edged Little to the boundary, limiting the opportunities Little produced at the other end. 

The small left-hander quickly settled into a groove and produced two beautiful boundaries off Ireland’s opening bowlers. Shanto quickly reached 35 off 31 deliveries before being caught by Craig Young, who has replaced Graham Hume in the Ireland team. Craig Young removed Shanto thanks to a good catch by Balbirnie at second slip. 

Despite the Bangladesh captain faced just 28 balls in the opening 16 overs of the contest, he was abnormally deprived of the strike, Tamim and Litton Das continued to score quickly. Bangladesh had a score of 98-2 and was on track to surpass 300 at that time.

The off-spin of Andy McBrine somewhat slowed their progress. McBrine was able to exert control despite Das hitting him for six over long-on early in his spell, giving up just 16 runs in his first four overs. He received payment when Adair successfully caught the perilous Das at mid-off. 

Tamim reached 50, but Bangladesh’s rate of scoring had slowed. Towhid Hridoy came and went before being replaced by the skilled Mushfiqur Rahim on the final delivery of George Dockrell’s first over. While Rahim and Mehidy Hasan Miraz put up a fifty-run partnership for the sixth wicket, it wasn’t at a blistering rate, and Tamim was Dockrell’s second victim, falling for 69, Ireland kept making gains at regular intervals.

Bangladesh once more looked poised to produce a total around 300 when they were 255-5 after 45 overs, but McBrine and especially Adair put an end to that notion, ensuring that Bangladesh was bowled out for 274 with seven balls left in the innings. It was the third time in ODI cricket that Adair had taken a four-wicket haul for Ireland, and he concluded with stats of 4-40. 

Slowly, the Ireland pursuit got underway. Hasan Mahmud and Mustafizur Rahman both got off to strong starts with the ball in the first four overs, therefore there were no boundaries. Stephen Doheny was out for five runs by Rahman after edging a ball that was just angled away from him to Litton Das at second slip. Balbirnie and Stirling steadily increased the score while maintaining a manageable run rate.

While Balbirnie advanced the score at a pace that was more than respectable, Stirling unleashed a series of brutal blows that sprinted for the barrier. Breaking Stirling and William Porterfield’s previous Irish record for the most 100-run stands in ODI cricket, both batters reached fifty as they shared their seventh century partnership. 

Sadly for Ireland, just like Tamim earlier in the game, Stirling and Balbirnie both dropped out of the game shortly after attaining their milestones, leaving Harry Tector—who just scored a career-high 140 points on Friday—and Lorcan Tucker to take over the leadership.

Earlier in his innings, Tector made clear his intentions by attacking Mehidy and hitting him for six over extra cover after the Bangladeshi off-spinner had been giving up runs at a rate of fewer than three per over up to that point. 

Ireland still had seven wickets in hand with 14 overs to go, but the asking rate had risen to over seven runs per over. After seeing through another quiet over from Mehidy, Tector and Tucker stepped it up a notch, scoring 21 runs off Mrittunjoy Chowdhury’s seventh over and then adding another 11 runs off Ebadot Hossain’s opening over to the attack.

With Tucker and Tector at the plate, 62 runs were required from the last 10. With nine overs left, Tector hit his second six, a powerful blow off a slower delivery from Ebadot, bringing the asking rate below a run per ball and giving Ireland the upper hand.

At the crunch point of the run chase, Tamim made the brilliant choice to add Shanto, a player who had never previously taken a wicket in international cricket, into the attack. With his fifth delivery, Shanto removed Tector for 45 runs due to a superb catch by Das in the deep. 

The dismissal of Curtis Campher by Rahman in the over after Tector was out was then made worse by Tamim’s cool-headed high catch. In order to kill off the momentum of the Ireland run chase, Rahman removed Dockrell and Tucker for exactly fifty to continue showcasing his death bowling. 

In spite of some ferocious strikes from Adair that brought the match to its final over, Ireland finally fell four runs short, with runs scarce towards the conclusion of their innings, in a manner reminiscent of Bangladesh’s earlier in the day. He finished with statistics of 10-1-44-4. Bangladesh wins the series 2-0 as a result of Ireland’s defeat, although despite Ireland’s loss, their performance in this series was noticeably better.

Before travelling to Lord’s Stadium to take on England in June, Ireland will play a three-day match back in Essex at the end of the month.

Bangladesh 274 (48.5 overs; Tamim Iqbal 69; Mark Adair 4-40)

Ireland 270-9 (50 overs; Paul Stirling 60, Andy Balbirnie 53, Lorcan Tucker 50; Mustafizur Rahman 4-44)

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