Melbourne witnessed Ireland defeat England for the first time in the T20 World Cup on Wednesday, October 26. They have now got points on board after today’s game. Rain was seen playing spoilsport in an unsmooth chase by England. Duckworth Lewis Stern played a role as England was behind by five runs according to this method. 

Batting first, Ireland started positively by taking on the England pacers and though they lost their way towards the end, Balbirnie and Co. had done enough to get a par total of 157.

Joshua Little then gave them the perfect start by getting rid of the openers in his first two overs, while Fionn Hand bowled a jaffa to remove Ben Stokes. Dawid Malan and Harry Brook struggled to keep up with the rate and that left Moeen to do too much, he struck a few meaty blows before the rain made an appearance.

Ireland beat 2 time T20 World Cup champions West Indies and 1 time T20 World Champions England in this World Cup.

Memorable, Irish. pic.twitter.com/wlsSFpIbRX

— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) October 26, 2022

 

England skipper Jos Buttler rued that they were not up to the mark with the ball and let the Irish batter take the game away from them. Speaking at the post-match presentation ceremony, Buttler said:

“Especially in the first ten overs with the ball I thought we were poor and allowed Ireland to get away. We were not consistent enough, to let them score on both sides, there were some favourable conditions for bowling, and we had everything in our favour; winning the toss and electing to field knowing the weather, we didn’t take advantage of that.

“The second 10 overs were much better, we let Ireland get 20-30 runs too many in the first 10 overs and were under pressure to restrict them.”

“Myself getting out in the first over, that’s never ideal and we never managed to grab the initiative. They bowled well and used the wicket well. It (the rain) was going to get heavier and heavier wasn’t it, but again as I said we won the toss and chose to bowl with the advantage of knowing what to do with the bat,” he added further. 

“They showed us how to bowl on that wicket” – Jos Buttler praises Ireland bowlers

Jos Buttler was also heard praising the opposition bowlers. He also reiterated that they need to bounce back against defending champions Australia in their next game. 

“They showed us how to bowl on that wicket. They outplayed us in all three facets of the game and the better team won. We know we have made a mistake here and have put more pressure on ourselves, but certainly, if you needed a game to get going then England-Australia is one of those,” Jos Buttler concluded. 

Even though they lost today’s game, England still have a considerable chance to qualify for the T20 World Cup semi-finals. 

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