- India’s pacers, led by Rana, took early wickets effectively.
- Lorcan Tucker scored 50, providing lone resistance for Ireland.
- A late partnership lifted Ireland’s total to 182/9.
Belfast: Indian pacers stuck to hard lengths and preyed on the aggressive tendencies of Ireland batters, limiting them to 182 for nine in the first T20 International here on Friday.
The much-anticipated international debut for Vaibhav Sooryavanshi did not happen, but the full house at Stormont ground had enough to cheer for as India, led by Harshit Rana (3/24) dominated from ball one.
Ireland skipper Lorcan Tucker made a half-century (50, 36 balls) but it was largely a lone hand.
The Indian quicks did not try to pitch the ball up and search for swing, as many would expect in these conditions.
But they placed their belief in back of the length deliveries and were rewarded handsomely.
In the power play segment, the priced wickets of Tim Tector, Harry Tector and Ross Adair helped reduce the home side to 30 for three, and Ireland could only score 36 in the first six overs.
Tim and Adair went for pull shots, and gave catches to Shreyas Iyer and Sanju Samson respectively.
Both fell to Rana and his intensity in the first match after recovering from a four-month injury lay-off might have pleased the team management.
Harry went for a drive when Arshdeep Singh (2/28) offered a rare fuller delivery, resulting in a simple catch to Samson.
Shivam Dube too reaped benefits of shorter length, getting rid of Ben Calitz, who had extracted two sixes off Prasidh Krishna.
Ireland were 51 for four then, but Tucker realised 64 runs for the fifth wicket to rescue them from a precarious position.
Tucker was slow to begin, but the right-hander soon slipped into his aggressive, innovative self to give his side a move-on.
Tucker tucked into left-arm spinner Axar Patel (2/33) in the 13th over, smashing 4, 4, 6 and he fetched his fifty in 35 balls.
There was also a lovely scoop of Prasidh Krishna, who was expensive (0/57), for a boundary.
But Tucker’s pull off a pace-off, short delivery from Rana ended in the hands of Tilak Varma in the deep.
Ireland were 115 for five then.
However, Delany and George Dockrell added 49 runs between overs 14.3 and 17.1 to take them past 150.
Delany was severe on Prasidh whose lengths went awry in his last over. The powerful right-hander hammered the pacer for 4, 6, 6, 6 in the 16th over to take 27 runs from it.
But Delany (49) could not complete a well-deserved fifty, lifting Arshdeep straight to Tilak near the ropes.
(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)
