England vs Ireland Live: England take on Ireland at MCG. England vs Ireland T20 World Cup 2022 Highlights: An enthralling encounter between Ireland and England. Not the first time that Ireland has overshadowed an English side. A little help from rain and Ireland were 5 runs ahead of the DLS par score after 14.3 overs. Massive upset at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Earlier, Mark Wood (3/34), Liam Livingstone (3/17) and Sam Curran (2/31) helped England to restrict Ireland for 157 runs. At one stage, Ireland were looking in great control. Andy Balbirnie (62) and Lorcan Tucker (34) put on an 82-run stand for the second wicket, but one Tector got out, things went haywire for Ireland. England will need 158 runs to win the match.
Brief Scores
Ireland: 157 all out in 19.2 overs (Andy Balbirnie 62, Lorcan Tucker 34; Mark Wood 3/34, Liam Livingsstone 3/17, Sam Curran 2/31)
England: 105 for 5 in 14.3 overs (Dawid Malan 35, Moeen Ali 24; Josh Little 2/16, George Dockrell 1/5)
Follow Highlights from ENG vs IRE match below
Ireland
157 (19.2)England
105/5 (14.3)Ireland beat England by 5 runs (D/L method)
England take on Ireland in Melbourne.
"Yeah, we were slightly disappointed the way we finished with the bat. We tried to create chances with the ball, we know how this England team plays and tried to work on that. I think Josh has a good express pace and bowls at the right areas.
Dockrell played very well, and can't get enough. It's amazing, we never played a game here, and to come and put on a show for our friends, the family, hope we can continue this till the last week.
We will continue to make this game a bigger one and put up some more shows like this. We have a game against Afghanistan on Friday, we have taken a bit of momentum with us and hoping to do the same thing. We are fortunate to have castled things against England. George Dockrell managed to get the wicket which we needed."
"Yeah, especially with the ball in the first ten overs, I think we were poor with the execution and let Ireland to get away. We weren't consistent enough with the ball and bowled all over, and that played into their hands. We were good in the second half and pegged them back. That was why we bowled first after winning the toss, and with the weather around, it was an obvious decision. Maybe 30 runs too much gave away by us. The way we bowled in the second half showed Ireland how to bowl here. Myself getting out in the first over didn't help our cause. The rain got heavier and heavier, but we weren't down as we could have a comeback and played anytime. But there is a cut-off time for everything. Ireland is a great team. They outplayed us today. We made a mistake here and now, it is a tough group. Now, the game at MCG against Australia gets even bigger. The pressure will be there. But we need to play as a group and come at top."
Just as Moeen Ali threw in a desperate hand, throwing his bat and heart at the Irish, and England crept closer to the runs required as per DRS, the Irish luck smiled. The clouds opened up. Rain has seldom been sweeter at the MCG. Three years ago, Irish luck had smiled on a England captain, Eoin Morgan from Ireland. Now it has returned in some style.
Congrats to Josh Little who is heading off on a development opportunity with the Chennai Super Kings in the early stages of the upcoming IPL.
"The experience as a net bowler for CSK should be fantastic.
#GoWellJosh ???"
That was a tweet this March by Cricket Ireland. Joshua Little has indeed gone well since then.
At 17, In 2017, he was selected to play in a series in India but Little chose to skip it to focus on academics at school. “I got picked to play against Afghanistan in Greater Noida, Delhi. [But] it was an important time for school, and I had to give the cricket a miss and try to do well in my exams. That was my decision. I got a lot of stick for it on social media and stuff,” he had told ICC website then. In September 2016, he had already became the second-youngest player to feature in a T20.
At the world cup stage, against England, he has produced a stunner. The left-arm seamer who reckons his wrist-snap at release confuses the batsmen as it can come out at a slightly more pace then they expect. He is right. Jos Buttler flashed but edged behind. Alex Hales couldn’t control a pull to a ball angled across him and was snapped up at square-leg.
Barry McCarthy takes the top edge of Dawid Malan's bat, and Fionn Hand completes the catch at the third-man. Malan falls for a 37-ball 35! England 86 for 5, need 72 more off 41 balls
That boundary brings up 1000 runs for Moeen Ali in the T20Is. A much-needed boundary for England. They need 72 runs in 42 balls.
Malan is riding on his luck today. Back of a length delivery, just outside the off and Malan pulls and gets an inside edge past the off stump and the four unfurls towards the fine leg boundary.
Two dropped catches off successive balls have let off England. With England on 63 for 3 in 10 overs, chasing 158, George Dockerell began his left-arm spin. First ball, Harry Brook swiped to long-on where Mark Adair overruns the ball and palms it over his head. Next ball, Dawid Malan slaps to extra cover where Gareth Delaney clanged it.
But luckily, for Ireland, Brook would offer another catch off the fifth ball and Delaney would pouch it at deep midwicket to bring back Irish smiles. England need 90 from 54 balls. Hmmm…
Third time lucky for George Dockrell. Delany makes amend this time after dropping two catches in this match and takes a simple catch at the deep mid-wicket.
Two in tow. Delany has dropped Malan now. Third of the match and 10 in this tournament.
Mark Adair put down a straight forward chance at the long on. Harry Brook survives.
Overpitched from Hand and it was punished by Hand. Brook gets under it and lofts it up and over mid-off for a boundary. He holds his pose after this lofted off-drive.
Ireland have been absolutely stunning. The seamers Joshua Little, Mark Adair, Fionna Hand, and even the leggy Gareth Daley have been spot on with line, length, and movement. Joshua had the pace and smartness to bang in a couple of surprise short ones to pick two wickets while Adair and Hand, especially Adair, have been moving the ball beautifully.
At end of 9 overs, England were 53 for 3 with asking rate climbing over 9 per over. In slightly overcast conditions, England bowlers couldn’t produce much, perhaps the ball was slippery or the run-up area wet as Mark Wood seemed to indicate at the end of the knock. But Ireland have stepped up to great effect.
Can they finish off an upset win here?
Fionn Hand already has a record to his name. In August, on his T20I debut against Afghanistan, Hand smashed a 18-ball 36 batting at No. 9, the highest score recorded by a debutant batting at that position.
He would do one better on his world cup debut on Wednesday, producing a perfect nip-backing curler to leave Ben Stokes wincing and muttering. It landed on a length around off and tilted in and Stokes, stuck to the crease, just about waved a forward defensive prod more in hope than any conviction. The ball sneaked through the bat-and-pad alley to peg back the stumps.
Hand lost his head, heading into a celebratory run as his dreamy year continues.
“If I look back, in the past six months I was working two jobs, in college and playing for Munster, and then all of a sudden I have two caps under my belt and a contract. It happened so fast, but you can never give up really,” he had told Dublin’s newspaper The Independent. “I’m just trying now to take it all in and reflect on what has happened.”
What has happenned Hand is that you are rocking.
UNLUCKY! Malan drives and gets an outside edge towards the fine of third man for a four. The fielder inside the circle gives a chase but not enough to save the boundary. A much-needed boundary for Malan and England.
Ireland bowlers have kept things under control with three big scalps in the Powerplay. At the end of the Powerplay England are 37 for 3. England need 121 runs in 84 balls to win this match.
What a bowl to get the wicket of Ben Stokes. Ireland can believe now, England have lost their wicket. What a seam presentation from Hand!! The inswinging delivery beats the inside half of Stokes defence, to knock the timbers over.
Ireland pacers are troubling both the left-handed batters. Malan and Stokes are not able to switch the gears. England need 130 runs in 90 balls.
It was an absolute peach of a delivery from Mark Adair, the right-arm swinger. Helped by the backspin, the ball rushed on with its proud seam that would have made Mohammad Shami perk up in excitement. It would land on a length around the off-stump line and Malan went for the big on-the-up swing over the bowler’s head. But he didn’t account for the late movement and even as the ball curved in, he let a gasp as he he knew he was done in. On air Michael Atherton would say, “Malan would have expected to hear a death rattle” of the stumps. But luckily for him, and unluckily for Adair, the ball would just about bob up and fly over the bails. Almost a kiss of death. Malan would then look across and nod his head up and down in utter respect at Adair.
Alex Hales departs and Ireland are well in this game. Hales looks to pull across the line, and incurs a top edge that flies straight underneath Mark Adair at square leg. Josh Little gets his second wicket.
CHANCE! Hales flashed hard, it burst through the hands-off George Delany.
Shot arm jab from Alex Hales. He gets his first boundary of the match.
Second ball DUCK for Buttler. Little gets the wicket. Josh Little nicks off Jos Buttler for a duck second ball. What start for Ireland.
England openers Jos Buttler and Alex Hales are out in the middle. Josh Little will start the proceedings for Ireland.
Though they ended up with 157, Ireland have showed the way to the rest of the world how England can be beaten. Or at least pushed. At the 15th over mark, they were sailing along at 127 for 3, and looking at 180 possibly. But they would lose two wickets in the 16th, including the red-hot captain Andrew Balbirnie. A collapse ensued. But until then, Balbirnie and Lorcan Tucker, in a 82-run stand that disappointingly ended via a run-out with Tucker backing out too far and the bowler Adil Rashid getting a lucky hand to the straight hit, had shown that this England attack could be collared. Barring Mark Wood, nearly everyone leaked runs.
Liam Livingstone and Mark Wood scalped three wickets, while Sam Curran picked a couple of wickets as England restricted Ireland for 157. Earlier in the day, England won the toss and opt to bowl first. The match started after a 15 minutes delay. Ireland were 11/0 after 1.3 overs when the rain hit back to halt the game for a few minutes. Balbirnie and Lorcan Tucker took on the attack on the English bowlers as they stitched 82 runs for the second wicket. England came back strongly in the second half of the innings. Stay tuned for the chase.
You miss I hit. Outstanding stuff from Sam Curran. He has cleaned up Fionn Hand for 1.
Full, straight and Curran gets the wicket of Barry McCarthy. Ireland are losing the momentum.
150 up for Ireland in 18 overs. How much they will get from the last 12 deliveries?
The Irish fan clad in a green costume stood up in agony. The head bowed, face invisible, sadness pouring out. Their captain Andrew Balbirnie, who had played a wonderfully belligerent hand with a 47-ball 62 with 2 sixes and five fours had just got out in the 16th over He had swept Liam Livingstone right into the palms of deep square-leg and the fan hung his head in disappointment.
On the costume, a text ran: ‘Aussie flies are more annoying than this rain’. It had been a rainy day that had delayed the start and interrupted the game but Balbirnie had shone brightly to lit up the faces of the Irish fans.
The crack about flies brings to the mind another cricketer and the Aussie flies. England’s pugnacious captain Douglas Jardine, of the Bodyline fame. Once, during that tour when he deployed his pacers Harold Harwood and co. to bounce at Don Bradman and the rest with many fielders behind the popping crease on the leg side - these days only 2 are allowed, he would shoo away a fly.
Out boomed a voice from the Sydney hill from the legendary Aussie cricket fan Yabba: "Leave those flies alone, they are your only friends here".
Yabba was a legendary character, associated with several noticeable witticisms. Once in 1932 when the Nawab of Pataudi batted for half an hour without scoring, Yabba advised the umpire, a gas-meter inspector, to "put a penny in him George, he's stopped registering”.
Once, when a defensive batsman was anaesthetising the crowd Yabba shouted out in his stentorian voice, "Call nurse Mitchell [a noted abortionist in those times] to get the bastard out!" Another time, when a batsman was struggling to put bat to ball, he bleated out, "Bowl the bastard a grand piano and see if he can play that instead!" A
But his barbs not only reeked of harmless sarcasm but also were humane. Once, in 1934, when the rest of the mob in The Hill were patronising women cricketers Yabba refused to join in.
When the orchestrated cry of "Shake it up with your powder puff in there, girls!" went around, Yabba, when asked to join, sniggered, "Why should I? The ladies are playing all right for me. This is cricket. Leave the girls alone."
Overpitched and Delany drive it towards the backward of the square region for a boundary. Delany finds the gap and gets the boundary.
Mark Wood gets his third. Curtis Campher departs for 11-ball 17. Campher shuffles across and pulls, ends up getting a tickle and Jos Buttler leaps to his left to take the catch.
The faster it come, the faster it goes. Good improvisation and this one runs towards the boundary ropes. Campher shuffles across and laps it fine of the fine leg fielder this time.
Two in two for Liam Livingstone. One brings two. Livingstone now cleans up Dockrell and is on a hat-trick.
Liam Livingstone ends Andy Balbirnie's innings. The Ireland skipper departs after scoring a brilliant 62.
When Andrew Balbirnie smashed a short ball from Sam Curran over square-leg boundary in the 15th over, he stood and watched the ball sail. Pride and satisfaction would be accompanied with some comic relief too. As a fan desperate to get to the ball would collapse from the seats and tumble over. All around him laughed. So did he, once he was helped up by his friend, still holding his iPhone aloft in his left hand. Something says he would have loved the ball more than the phone in his palms.
WHIPPED! Back of a length delivery from Curran, and Balbirnie picks the length early, shuffles away and swats it over the deep backward square leg fence.
What happens when you wallop the pacy Mark Wood for a first-ball four? Ireland’s Curtis Campher found out. Yup, a pacy snorter of a bouncer, allright. Campher was late on the attempted pull and the 148 kmph brute smashed into his helmet grill. Did he flinch, though? He was trying to dash out for a single. Wood looked far more concerned. The physio would come out, do his bit, and Campher was ready, slashing the next ball powerfully down to the third man fielder.
Campher was born in South Africa and had even played a few U-19 games when the former Ireland cricketer Niall O’Brien came calling. Niall had discovered Campher’s Irish roots and coaxed the allrounder to come to Ireland.
“He (Niall O’Brien) was involved in the beginning but that wasn't the main reason. The main reason was seeking opportunities to play for Ireland. He was looking to get me over for some club cricket and that was my main focus,” Campher once told cricket.com “I wasn't really set on playing for the Irish straightaway. Plan was to come over, experience the culture and play some club cricket. Fortunately, it went my way and I got a debut.” And what a debut too: An unbeaten fifty and a wicket against England.
A fine 40-ball 50 for Ireland skipper Andre Balbirinie. He has kept the tempo up. Eighth overall in the T20Is.
Wood gets Tector second ball. He drives and gets a feather to the keeper. 50th T20Is catch for Buttler.
Just up and over the fielder at backward point to run towards the boundary ropes. Full and just a touch overpitched outside the off, Campher throws the kitchen sink at it.
Just hours before the start of Ireland’s game against England, Andrew Balbirnie’s wife Kate, who also plays cricket for Ireland, tweeted, “Ireland v England … and not a mention of it anywhere on @RTEsport”.
Don’t worry Kate, as Balbirnie has truly ensured there will be sports coverage on him with an enterprising knock against England.
When Ireland lost their previous game, Andrew Balbirnie had one request to the press: I don’t want sticky wicket as the headline. No excuses.
Today, he walked the confident talk, even honking 18 runs in the 10th over, bowled by Chris Woakes. There were couple of fours but the six over fine-leg would probably linger for a while in the mind. It was the last ball and Woakes had dug it in at the rib-cage, but Balbirnie swivelled neatly to help it up and over fine-leg boundary. On air, Nasser Hussain began to scream his raves. Why not?
The only thing perhaps he would rue so far was his indirect involvement in the run out of Lorcan Tucker. Balbirnie drove a ball back down the pitch and the bowler Adil Rashid unwittingly got a hand on it during his lunge, and it crashed into the non-striker’s stumps with Tucker backing out too far.
What an unfortunate way to get out! Balbirinie plays it down the ground and Rashid dives to get a whisker of hands on the rebounding ball; Tucker was quite some distance away from the crease. It is the end of a brilliant 182-run stand for the second wicket.
100 up for England in 11.2 overs.
At the end of ten overs, Ireland are 75/1. The rain has played the part. Rain had also delayed the start of the match by 15 minutes. Ireland had lost Paul Stirling early, but the unbeaten 71-run stand for the second wicket between Andrew Balbirnie and Lorcan Tucker has given momentum to Ireland.
Excellent batting! What an over this is turning out for Ireland. Short and angling in down the leg side. Balbirnie helps it on its way as he uses the pace to pull it over the deep fine-leg fielder for a six. Eighteen came from that Woakes over.
SMASHED! Beautiful shot from Balbirnie. He is taking on Chris Waokes.
This is wayward from Woakes. Short and angling in but down the leg side. Balbirnie pulls it in the air and to the right of the deep fine leg fielder.
Luckily, for us, our former colleague Daksh Panwar was at the ground in Dhaka and spotted Tucker’s family.
Here is their explanation on the whole Jesus affair.
In the here and now, on a rainy day at MCG, Tucker would unfurl a dreamy lap shot off Chris Woakes. A pretty decent delivery, full and just about seaming away from the off-stump line, but Tucker was ready, shuffling across nimbly, crouching, and he would lap it up and over short fine for an one-bounce four. Ever since that U-19 world cup, Tucker has shown a penchant for such shots and an ambition to play the 360 degree game.
Off the last ball of the powerplay, he charged down the pitch to wallop Sam Curran over long-on for a six.
And what does Lorcan mean? Daksh has the answer in his piece. Click away.
Fifty up for Ireland with that boundary. A full toss from Curran and Tucker accepts it with both hands, moves down the leg side and drives it past the diving mid-off fielder for a four.
Andrew Balbirnie makes full use of Mark Wood's pace, makes some room and and swivels it over cover point fielder for a boundary. It was bowled at 151 kmph.
Tucker is in the zone! Back of a length from Woakes and Lorcan Tucker cuts it just over the cover point fielder.
Cracking shot! Length ball around the off. Tucker shuffles across and scoops it over the short fine leg fielder for a four.
150kmph thunderbolt! Stirling was done for the pace. Another top edge and this time it was carried to Sam Curran.
Top edge, brilliant work from Sam Curran at the third man, but his left foot was touching the ropes. Stirling won't mind it.
Hammered! Balbirnie makes some room and hammers it over the covers.
It's drizzling once again and the players are going off the field. The rain is getting heavier now. The covers are being laid on the pitch. Stay tuned folks!
Squeezed! First boundary of the match. Too full and wide from Woakes and Stirling put it through to the left of the backward point region for a boundary.
The rain has stopped, and the covers are off. The umpires and players are on the field. Paul Stirling and Andrew Balbirnie are at the crease. Ben Stokes to start the proceedings for England. Here we go!