On Saturday, September 23, at Trent Bridge in Nottingham, England defeated Ireland by a score of 48 runs in a victory that was generally comfortable.
Rehan Ahmed, a young leg-spinner, recorded his best ODI stats of 4-54 to hinder Ireland’s pursuit, and even though the visitors added 129 runs for their final three wickets, the outcome was never in doubt. Sam Hain began his 50-over career with a fluent 89 earlier in the day, and Will Jacks reached his greatest individual total in ODIs.
Ireland got out to a fast start, much like their opponents did in the opening half of the game, as they pursued a challenging aim of 335. One of England’s four debutants, George Scrimshaw, had a terrible start as a result of a flurry of no-balls that allowed Paul Stirling and Andrew Balbirnie to get off to a quick start. Boundaries abound, some even coming from no-balls, and the Free Hits are also properly used. Before England could take control, Ireland was quickly approaching 50 with just under four overs remaining.
To his credit, Scrimshaw recovered and ripped apart the first alliance. With a beautiful delivery, he had Balbirnie caught at slip, and Matthew Potts struck on the first ball of the following over to castle Stirling. These strikes briefly slowed Ireland’s progress, but Harry Tector’s smooth strokeplay kept the scoreboard moving. Unfortunately, despite having a strong run rate in the chase, the visitors kept dropping wickets at regular intervals. Then Rehan entered the scene, dramatically altering the course of the match.
Rehan has demonstrated the ability to bowl true wicket-taking deliveries in his brief career thus far, and while consistency is still a work in progress, he has been able to trouble the best batters throughout the various white-ball formats. Ireland was completely unprepared to deal with his effective googly and succumbed to his cunning like a deck of cards. Tom Hartley, his partner in spin, failed to pick up any wickets, but he bowled a clean spell as well to put pressure on the foreigners. Ireland was at 157/7 and on the verge of collapse after leading by 103-3.
In terms of statistics, the Trent Bridge playing surface held up well during the entire contest. However, the scarcity of wickets meant that defeating England would require a miracle. The no. 8-11 and George Dockrell, who had previously had a successful day with the ball, commanded the defense as the tourists continued to make progress toward the goal. With the exception of Brydon Carse, England’s inexperienced bowling attack found it difficult to end the game early on. The seamers were also fairly uneven in their periods. Eventually, the pressure of the scoreboard and Ireland’s batters’ lack of preparation got them off the hook.
The day before, England’s young batting lineup finished with a respectable total, but given the pitch and surface, they left approximately 25 to 30 runs on the table. Despite the fact that Phil Salt and Ben Duckett were guilty of wasting their starts, Jacks and Hain made sure they continued to bat in their respective innings. The excellent supporting blows from Duckett and Carse enabled the score to surpass 330 runs. Ireland was careless with the new ball and gave up a lot of runs in the first PowerPlay, but they recovered well after that.
The two bowlers to watch were Dockrell and Craig Young, and it was Young’s first-semester twin strikes that helped Ireland get back into the match. With the exception of the first 10 overs, the visitors kept picking off wickets at regular intervals and generally found the appropriate lengths to prevent England from entirely dominating the game. The decent length deliveries weren’t as simple to hit, but just like Trent Bridge, the pacers have very little room for error. Although Ireland did well to limit England to 334, that ultimately proved to be more than enough for the World Champions, who grabbed an unassailable 1-0 series lead with one game remaining.
Brief scores: Ireland 286 in 46.4 overs (George Dockrell 43, Barry McCarthy 41; Rehan Ahmed 4-54, George Scrimhaw 3-66) were defeated by England 334-8 in 50 overs (Will Jacks 94, Sam Hain 89; George Dockrell 3-43, Craig Young 2-38) by 48 runs.
India
