28-10-19 cricket world cup t20
With the loss of David Delany due to a torn meniscus, knee
injury, Stuart Thompson returned to the side for this first-ever international
cricket match between the two sides.
After losing the toss and being asked to bowl first it
didn’t take long for the men in green to assert their dominance. Leg-spinner
Gareth Delany struck first, cleaning up opener Daniel Ajeku who tried to go
back and cut a ball too close to his stumps and was beaten in flight.
Two further wickets fell soon after, and the Nigerians found
themselves struggling at 13-3 after five overs.
From that point the African side never recovered, with the
Irish bowlers bowling a consistent line and length on a sluggish looking pitch.
Nigeria finished on 66-9 from their 20 overs – equal to the lowest completed
T20I total by a side not being bowled out.
For Ireland, Craig Young claimed career-best figures of 4-13
from his four overs, and Mark Adair went top of the tournament wicket-taking
chart with 2-10 from his four overs.
Demonstrating their tight bowling, five wickets to fall were
bowled, with head coach Graham Ford pleased that his side didn’t let the
pressure off throughout the full 20 overs.
With the state of the Group B table, at the halfway stage,
Ireland’s batters knew they had to knock off the target in nine overs to go top
of the group.
And they achieved their target off just 37 balls.
Paul Stirling (11) fell early, and Kevin O’Brien (32) lost
his wicket late on, but Gareth Delany (11 off 8 balls) and Mark Adair (10 off 4
balls) saw their side home at a rapid rate.
After electing to bowl, Oman had to contend with a brisk
opening stand of 60 between Nick Ferraby and Nick Greenwood. But a
menacing spell from Mohammad Nadeem - the medium-pacer took four wickets for a
career-best haul - soon reduced Jersey to 79 for 4 and then 96 for 5. Jersey's
lower-middle order strung together only 45 in the last seven overs to lift them
to 141 for 7.
While Nadeem's wicket burst was damage control, Blampied did
the damage early on. In the second over of the chase, he dismissed Khawar Ali,
Aqib Ilyas, and Aamir Kaleem to leave Oman 6 for 3. A 76-run stand between
Jatinder Singh and Zeeshan Maqsood kept Oman in the hunt, however.
The partnership had left Oman needing 60 off 48 balls to top the group. But
Miles would then come in the way - he dismissed both Jatinder and Maqsood, who
made 56 - and accounted for wicketkeeper Suraj Kumar in the middle as well.
From 82 for 3, Oman slipped to 103 for 6 in the 17th over. The remaining runs
were too much for the lower order to chase down.
Later in the day it was confirmed that Ireland topped Group
B on net run rate - the only way they wouldn't have finished No. 1 was if UAE
beat Canada by a gargantuan margin it was a close game
PAPA NEW GUINEA AND
IRELAND QUALIFY FOR SEMIS
PLAYOFFS
OMAN V NAMIBIA AND UAE
V NETHERLANDS
LOOSERS PLAY SCOTLAND
AND HONG KONG FOR WORLD CUP SPOT
MY
OPINION
Ireland have reached their
objective in reaching the world cup but for teams like the Netherlands and
Scotland this must be seen as a bit of a disappointment. I think that this is devoting
further and when the play offs are done we will get the chance to see who is in
and out and there could be a big name out
Comments
Post a Comment