Ireland beat West Indies by 9 wickets in a thrilling T20I World Cup qualifying match. With this defeat, West Indies hopes of reaching Super-12 have suffered a setback. At the same time, the hope of reaching Ireland’s Super-12 has increased.
Batting first after winning the toss, West Indies put a score of 142 runs on the board for the loss of five wickets in 20 overs. While chasing the target, Ireland team achieved the target by losing one wicket.
King’s innings did not work -:
Brandon King scored a half-century in a do or die match for West Indies. King remained unbeaten till the end, scoring 62 off 48 balls. Johnson Charles scored 24 runs in 18 balls.
Odean Smith contributed 19 runs. For Ireland, Gareth Delany bowled excellently and took 3 wickets while spending 16 runs in 4 overs.
Ireland reached Super-12 -:
Chasing the target, the Ireland team’s openers started off on a slow note. Paul Stirling and Andrew Balbirnie spoiled the line length of the West Indies bowlers.
Sterling played a fine innings of 66 runs in 48 balls to give victory to the team. At the same time, Balbirnie played a fast innings of 37 runs in 23 balls. Lorcan Tucker finally played a quick innings of 45 runs off 35 balls.
Akeal Hosein was the only successful bowler for West Indies. None of the other bowlers could trouble the Irish batsmen.
With this victory of Ireland, West Indies’ dream of reaching the Super-12 has almost been shattered.
Sunil Gavaskar said – both Rishabh Pant and Dinesh Karthik can play together
Not only Ireland make it to the Super-12 but also almost knocked the two-time champions out of the competition, after failing to get past the first round in their last five T20I World Cups.