Ireland impress​ but England get across the line

In cold May conditions, Ireland gave the number one ODI team, and World Cup favourites England, an almighty scare on Friday as both teams began their summer season in Dublin.

Batting first, Ireland had to wait for the weather to clear before they could get their innings underway. The game ended up being reduced to 45 overs per innings, but neither team required those as the bowlers dominated proceedings.

An impressive opening partnership of 55 from captain William Porterfield (17 off 28) and ever-reliable Paul Sterling appeared to give Ireland an ideal base to gain momentum.

However, Sterling, with 33 from 44, was Ireland’s highest scorer which illustrated how hard it was for new batsmen to get settled in the cold Dublin conditions.

After losing their first wicket with the score on 55, Ireland found themselves struggling at 4/77 as England shared the wickets around in the early stages.

The lower order, mainly George Dockrell and debutant Mark Adair, went about setting a competitive score for England to chase, with Dockrell hitting 24 from 42 and Adair entertaining the crowd with what looked like being a crucial 32 from just 30 balls.

Ireland’s downfall, however, was the fact that apart from their openers, Dockrell and Adair, only Andy Balbirnie and Tim Murtagh reached double figures.

Balbirnie got an impressive start but fell for 29 after facing 44 deliveries. Murtagh tried to dig in down the order, but couldn’t get any more than his 12 from 27 balls.

The home side didn’t manage to recover and were bowled out for 198 in the 44th over.

For England, Liam Plunkett was the most dangerous bowler as he took 4/35 off seven overs, but it was the ever-consistent, and one of the best One-Day bowlers in the world, Adil Rashid, who allowed the pacemen to attack. The leg-spinner finished with fantastic figures of 1/27 from nine overs, with an economy rate of just three an over – brilliant in 50-over cricket.

Tom Curran also supported Plunkett wonderfully, taking three wickets and only conceding the 35 runs from his 8.1 overs.

But we all knew about these English bowlers, today was about seeing Barbadian-born Jofra Archer playing for England, his goal since becoming part of the first class set-up at Sussex in 2016.

Despite a tough start, where Sterling and Porterfield got after him reasonably successful, his second spell was better. He finished with figures of 1/40 off eight and a well-taken catch to remove Sterling, a respectable debut on the international stage.

However, with England’s depth in bowlers, that kind of performance won’t get him in the 15-man squad for the World Cup, even if he was clocked bowling 90 mph on the yorker that bowled Adair.

Set 199 to win, at one stage it looked like we would also get to see Archer with the bat, but fellow debutant Ben Foakes and impressive youngster Tom Curran made sure England would start off their ‘biggest summer of cricket’ in a relatively positive way.

Opening bowler Josh Little made sure England’s openers, Dawid Malan (24 off 30) and James Vince (18 off 27) didn’t get off to a dominant start.

The pace bowler, another debutant in the match, went on to take 4/45 off eight overs in an impressive start to his international career and combined with the tight bowling of Murtagh, 1/29 off nine overs, resulted in England collapsing to 5/66.

At this stage, it looked like an upset was on the cards as Joe Root, Eoin Morgan and Joe Denly all failed to score more than eight. However, the middle and lower order saved England once again.

The sixth-wicket partnership of 35 between David Willey, who scored 20 off 38, and Foakes got England back on course before Curran came to the crease and settled.

Foakes played well for his 61 not out off 76 but was lucky that Ireland didn’t review an LBW decision late in the match. He made most of that luck as Curran, 47 from 56, joined him to put on a winning 98-run partnership for the seventh-wicket as England won by four wickets with 18 deliveries left.

An impressive performance for the home side, as Ireland looked dangerous with the ball throughout and fielded superbly, but it was England’s resilience down the batting order that got them the win.

Unfortunately, Ireland will not be competing in this year’s World Cup, a serious disappointment with the 10-team tournament as they have shown enough in the past to prove they would compete.

For England, there are more questions about their ideal bowling line-up, but a dilemma many teams would like so not a bad thing for the number one ranked ODI side ahead of a massive summer of cricket.

Ireland 198 all out (Paul Sterling 33, Liam Plunkett 4/35) defeated by England 6/199 (Ben Foakes 61 not out, Josh Little 4/45).