After PNG won the toss and chose to bat first, Craig Young made Ireland’s first breakthrough with the dismissal of Tony Ura for 2 in the second over, and Charles Amini then fell for 4 to Simi Singh in the final over of the powerplay. Sese Bau and Assad Vala – the skipper who top-scored with 32 – strung together a partnership of 23, but regular breakthroughs meant the PNG innings never caught fire.

Ben White fired in a wide delivery to have Bau stumped for 12 in the 12th over, and the leg-spinner removed Vala minutes later for his second. Jason Kila was White’s final victim, bowled for 2 after failing to connect from his sweep. Mark Adair and Young joined in on the fun of targeting the stumps, with the remaining three wickets in the innings all bowled.

PNG finished on 96-8, with White the pick of the bowlers, returning figures of 3-10 from four overs. Young too claimed a three-for, conceding 15 runs.

With the bat, Ireland lost Kevin O’Brien and Gareth Delany in the powerplay – aiming to go big over the off side, O’Brien (8 off 12) chopped on; Delany (5 off 7) was cleaned up by Simon Atai after failing to connect with a late cut.

But Andrew Balbirnie and Curtis Campher took Ireland home with a substantial unbeaten partnership of 71, with both batters finishing on 42 not out. While the Ireland captain was more patient in batting for 46 deliveries, Campher provided power, cracking three fours and two sixes during his 35-ball stay.

Ireland’s final warm-up match ahead of the World Cup takes place on Thursday against Bangladesh in Abu Dhabi.

After the game, captain Balbirnie said: “It’s always nice to get a win and put in a solid performance all round. The pitch was a slow, low and tired wicket, but our bowlers were very accurate throughout and executed their bowling plans well.”

 “My foot is fine, it’s still not pain-free, but certainly having a clear X-ray has been a great boost knowing that not much more damage can be done. I just have to remember, it’s better to use your bat rather than your boot.”

MATCH SUMMARY

Ireland Men v PNG Men, ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Warm-Up, Sheikh Zayed Stadium Nursery 1, Abu Dhabi, 12 October 2021

PNG 96-8 (20 overs; A Vala 31; B White 3-10, C Young 3-15)
Ireland 99-2 (16.4 overs; A Balbirnie 42*, C Campher 42*; S Atai 1-28)

Ireland won by 8 wickets (with 20 balls remaining)

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The fixtures were officially announced by the Emirates Cricket Board this morning as part of the ‘DafaNews Summer T20 Blast’ – a series of fixtures between 5-10 October also involving UAE, Scotland, Namibia and Papua New Guinea.

Warm-up matches against Papua New Guinea and Bangladesh are also set to be played on October 12 and October 14 respectively.

The side’s T20I World Cup campaign is set to begin on October 18 against the Netherlands.

They most recently played a three-game One Day International series with Zimbabwe earlier this month.

Graham Ford and his squad will leave for the UAE tomorrow and will undertake a mandatory six-day hotel quarantine before being able to begin training.

A preliminary 18-player squad was recently announced – this will be reduced to 15 for the T20 World Cup tournament.

However, the three other players will still travel to the UAE as reserves.

Squad

Andrew Balbirnie (c), Mark Adair, Curtis Campher, Gareth Delany, George Dockrell, Shane Getkate, Graham Kennedy, Josh Little, Andrew McBrine, Barry McCarthy, Kevin O’Brien, Neil Rock, Simi Singh, Paul Stirling, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker, Ben White, Craig Young.

Fixtures

Pre-T20 World Cup – preparation period

• 5 October 2021: Ireland v Scotland – warm-up match (ICC Academy Oval 2; start 9am local time)
• 7 October 2021: Ireland v UAE – 1st T20I (ICC Academy Oval 1; start 9am local time)
• 8 October 2021: Ireland v UAE – 2nd T20I (ICC Academy Oval 1; start 9am local time)
• 10 October 2021: Ireland v UAE – 3rd T20I (ICC Academy Oval 1; start 9am local time)

Official T20 World Cup warm-up matches

• 12 October 2021: Ireland v Papua New Guinea – warm-up T20I (Abu Dhabi; start 2pm local time)
• 14 October 2021: Ireland v Bangladesh – warm-up T20I (Abu Dhabi; start 6pm local time)

T20 World Cup – Round 1

• 18 October 2021: Ireland v Netherlands (Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium, Abu Dhabi; starts 10am GMT)
• 20 October 2021: Ireland v Sri Lanka (Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium, Abu Dhabi; starts 2pm GMT)
• 22 October 2021: Ireland v Namibia (Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Sharjah; starts 10am GMT)

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Their seven-wicket victory was helped on by the ever-reliable batsman Paul Stirling and captain Andrew Balbirnie, who scored 77 runs altogether and fired their side to victory.

Stormont could not escape the rain once again but it did not halt proceedings for the second game running, allowing Ireland to ease to victory in the final game of the series.

However, the match saw the total amount of overs reduced from 50 per team to 34 for Zimbabwe’s batting and Ireland had to chase their adjusted total of 118 in 32 overs under the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method.

The visitor’s had scored 131 in their overs, a total that was led by talisman Craig Ervine who hit 57 on the day teammate Brendan Taylor played his final game.

Taylor scored seven runs for his side as he brought an end to a 17-year international career with the side.

However, Ireland’s bowling led to wickets and Andy McBrine and Josh Little could only muster up a combined six runs in 59 balls.

The Zimbabweans ended their attack with 131 runs to their name, further reduced to 118 and the host’s made light work of their target.

The home side were almost at the half-century before their first wicket of the day came in the form of William Porterfield, whose 18 runs put Ireland on 48 alongside Stirling’s opening 30.

Captain Balbirnie helped his side home and steered Ireland into fourth on the Super League table on 50 points after the series.

Ireland’s focus will now turn to the T20 World Cup in October, with no ODI play scheduled until an away series against West Indies in January 2022.

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The series is part of the 2020-23 ICC Cricket World Cup Super League – an ODI league where teams play three-game series’ against each other.

Craig Ervine and Sikandar Raza both reached half-centuries as the visitors built up a total of 266/7 while Zimbabwe’s bowling kept Ireland at bay.

Ervine hit his second half-century in as many games for the Zimbabwean national team after putting up an unbeaten score against Ireland in the final game of the nations’ T20I series.

The left-handed 36-year-old scored the most runs for his team but failed to go unbeaten as Ireland captain Andrew Balbirnie got his wicket after 96 runs.

Sikandar Raza took the tempo up a notch when he stepped in, posting an unbeaten 59 from 44 balls to give Zimbabwe a strong finish to their 50 overs.

Ireland started their chase strongly but lost the wicket of Paul Stirling for 32 runs after himself and William Porterfield got Ireland up to 64 runs.

Porterfield fought on as Harry Tector replaced Stirling and gave Graham Ford’s side a second strong partnership in the opening half of their batting.

However, Porterfield was dismissed after 75 runs in 110 balls and the loss of the starter signalled the beginning of a collapse.

Tector kept his cool and managed an impressive 50 from 55 balls before falling victim to the Zimbabwean bowling.

Ireland were in a strong position at 187/3 but a measly 41 runs from the rest of their batsmen handed the opening match to Zimbabwe and gave the side their first ODI win in 10 months.

Lalchand Rajput’s men take an important lead that means Ireland will have to play catch-up for the rest of the series.

Zimbabwe have also won 10 valuable points in the 2020-23 ICC Cricket World Cup Super League – another win will put them five points behind Ireland with six games-in-hand.

Ireland will look to get level in the series on Friday morning when the two sides play the second ODI.

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Zimbabwe took the fifth and final test in the final game of a series that was already decided to soften the blow of the setback.

Craig Ervine scored 67 for his side, achieving his third T20I half-century in an unbeaten fashion, to help Zimbabwe to their second triumph of the T20 games against Ireland.

However, the side started slowly with three batters being dismissed for single-digit scores – Mark Adair had another fruitful opener, taking two of the other and keeping Zimbabwe’s first batter, Tinashe Kamunhukamwe, scoreless.

Ervine and Wesley Madhevere steadied things for the Zimbabweans after their 3/2 start and got 31 runs between them before the latter fell to Josh Little.

Ervine stepped up to the plate and achieved his unbeaten 67 with the support of Dion Myers and Milton Shumba, who added 40 between them to propel their side to 124/4 at the end of their 20 overs.

Myers became Adair’s third and final wicket of the day after scoring 26 runs in 23 balls.

Ireland failed to get going in the first six overs with Kevin O’Brien, captain Andy Balbirnie, Player of the Series Paul Stirling and Harry Tector all walking inside six overs.

Despite his early exit, Stirling finished the game as Ireland’s second-highest scorer with 19 runs from 13 balls.

The man ahead of him on the scoring charts, Neil Rock, got Ireland 22 runs off 21 balls but the side allowed too many wickets.

Luke Jongwe and Donald Tiripano picked up three wickets each as they bowled Ireland out for 119 in 20 overs.

The two sides will face each other three more times this month in the form of One Day Internationals beginning on Wednesday, September 8.

However, the next T20I action for Ireland will be at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in October – their first fixture is a match against the Netherlands on October 18.

The post Ireland End Zimbabwe T20I Series As 3-2 Winners appeared first on SportsNewsIreland.

Paul Stirling’s first century in T20 international cricket came at a good time with his 115 pushing Ireland to victory against their visiting opponents.

The Belfast native took centre stage on a day when the second test’s Player of the Match, Kevin O’Brien failed to get up to speed.

Zimbabwe failed to muster a significant reply and they were dismissed for 138 in 18.2 overs.

The hosts rotated their side after their first win of the series in the previous test, making three changes in the form of Mark Adair, Joshua Little and debutant William McClintock who came in for Craig Young, Barry McCarthy and Harry Tector.

Ireland batted first but managed only 33 runs in the Powerplay, losing the wicket of O’Brien in the process.

Stirling, who opened with O’Brien, grew into the game and combined with captain Andrew Balbirnie to put up a 77-run stand.

Stirling reached a half-century for the 19th time in T20I cricket and continued his hot form when Balbirnie went out in the 16th over.

The 30-year-old reached his first century at this level after three sixes and a four in the 19th over against Tendai Chatara and went unbeaten on 115.

Ireland had turned their fortunes around from 60/1 at the halfway stage to 178/2 by the time they completed their overs.

Their bowlers stepped up to produce a tough challenge for the Zimbabwean batsmen, with Mark Adair being the pick of the bunch on his return to the side, posting 3-11.

The aggressive approach from the visitors did not pay off as captain Craig Ervine was the only player to score above 14 runs, putting 33 up for his side.

Ryan Burl managed to score 26 runs from 23 balls but the challenge of scoring 75 in the final 41 balls proved insurmountable and Zimbabwe were bowled out for 138.

Ireland will have the chance to wrap up the series on Thursday, September 2 at 3 pm when the two teams face off at Bready once again.

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Ireland came out on top against the Netherlands in a battle that determined who finished behind Scotland in the qualifiers.

The side had beaten France on Sunday morning to set up the showdown with the Dutch.

Batting first, Ireland posted 111/9, with Eimear Richardson hitting a half-century and posting 53 runs.

Gaby Lewis also put up a respectable 32 runs to help Ireland to a strong start against their opponents.

This left Lewis on 145 runs across the qualifiers – the most in the tournament.

Eva Lynch picked up four wickets for the Dutch, while Iris Zwilling also chipped in with three scalps.

In the chase, a lack of contribution from the batters, apart from Robine Rijke who added 32 runs to her cause, proved costly as the Netherlands fell short of the total by 24 runs.

Captain Laura Delany and Cara Murray picked up three wickets apiece for the Irish.

With the victory, Ireland finished behind Scotland, accumulating 6 points in four matches.

Richardson was awarded Player of the Series after spectacular performances throughout the tournament.

Scotland finished at the top of the qualifiers with an unblemished record, earning maximum points and winning all four games.

The Scots comfortably beat France by ten wickets, much like Ireland did on Sunday morning, to finish with a 100% record.

The French were bowled out for 24 when they batted first as the Scottish bowlers wreaked havoc.

The French batters couldn’t register a double-figure score and Scotland gained control of the contest early on.

For the Scots, Megan McColl was the pick of the bowlers with astounding match-figures of 5/3 in her spell of four overs while Abbi Aitken-Drummond also picked up two wickets.

With a small total to chase, the Scottish women went hell for leather, which led to them losing three wickets. But the target was accomplished after only 2.2 overs, continuing their dominant run in the tournament, winning four matches out of four to top the Europe Qualifier.

Scotland will progress to the global qualifier which will begin in 2022 – Ireland have a chance to join them if they are the highest-ranked team on November 30 that did not win their group.

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The last time he passed fifty in national colors, O’Brien carried onto a magnificent career-best 124 against Hong Kong.

Ireland had fallen to a three-run defeat in the opener, with Zimbabwe making 117 on that occasion, but found chasing a target of 153 easier, in large part thanks to O’Brien’s efforts. The first delivery he faced struck him on the wrist and left him requiring treatment from the physios, but he shrugged off the blow to play a match-defining knock.

At first, however, it was Paul Stirling who did much of the scoring, with O’Brien content to turn the strike over to his opening partner. Stirling nudged his second ball fine for the first boundary of the innings, and peppered the boundary thereafter, with a crunching back-foot smash and a lofted off-drive finding the extra-cover rope, with a six over the leg-side needing the delivery of a new ball.

O’Brien carved Richard Ngarava over the offside before swinging Tendai Chatara through his leg to prove his own form, but did enjoy one moment of fortune, dropped by Craig Ervine running back from mid-off, with the ball popping out of the Zimbabwe skipper’s grasp and rolling into the rope.

By the end of the powerplay, Ireland had 53, with Stirling 31 off 27 and O’Brien 15 off 11. Two balls later, six had been added to the total but Stirling had been dismissed, with Ryan Burl dragging one down and punished before finding the inside edge through to the keeper.

Andrew Balbirnie joined O’Brien to steady the ship, with their 18-run stand occupying four overs and containing a solitary boundary, O’Brien sweeping Milton Shumba behind square. Balbirnie dragged Burl onto the stumps, but the entrance of George Dockrell injected some spark into the innings, with he and O’Brien running Zimbabwe ragged.

Their partnership contained five twos and a three, with pressure mounting on the touring side. O’Brien managed to find the boundary regularly too, bringing up a special half-century in perfect style, lofting Wellington Masakadza gloriously over extra-cover for six.

He fell not long after, caught at mid-off off Shumba, and another tense finish looked on the cards with 12 required from the last two overs. But in a flash, it was over, with Dockrell finding the fence three times in three deliveries, and victory had been secured with seven wickets and nine balls to spare.

Ireland win the second #IREvZIM T20I and level the series 1-1

George Dockrell finishes it with a four, helping his side seal a seven-wicket victory!

https://t.co/QX9umJQpzz | @cricketireland pic.twitter.com/wX7GprPEXV

— ICC (@ICC) August 29, 2021

Ervine briefly threatened to mount a resistance, striking two boundaries in his 12-ball stay, but Ben White removed him, the leg-spinner pinning the Zimbabwe skipper lbw for his maiden international wicket, the perfect gift on his 23rd birthday.

At the halfway stage, Zimbabwe were 64-4, and one delivery later that became 64-5, a leading-edge from Chakabva looping up into the offside where Stirling took a one-handed catch at full stretch. The grab gave Getkate his third wicket, and he finished with career-best figures of 3-20.

However, having dominated the opening half of the innings, Ireland could find no way through the sixth wicket stand between Shumba and Burl. After a quiet over from Simi Singh, it was a six-off Getkate that got the fightback underway. Burl skipped down the track, launching high and handsome over the straight boundary and into the houses behind.

Eight runs came in that and each of the following two overs, before another six, slog-swept by Burl off White over deep midwicket helped Zimbabwe accelerate further.

Zimbabwe ended with 152-5, the pair having put on 88 runs in just under 10 overs and took the momentum into the innings break. But O’Brien would ensure that it was Ireland who claimed victory.

On a less positive note, Ireland’s medical staff have confirmed Curtis Campher injured his left shoulder in the field in last Friday’s game and was forced to withdraw from the second match. Scans have revealed a sprain of the AC joint with some associated ligament damage. He will miss the rest of the T20I series and see a specialist as a precautionary measure.

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Until Tuesday this week, Ireland Men had never beaten South Africa in One Day International cricket, having played five times before. Ireland had also never beaten a world-ranked top-eight side in an ODI at home since 2006.

Captain Andrew Balbirnie revealed after Tuesday’s match that his move to opener was a decision that was made on the morning of the game after William Porterfield was ruled out with a finger injury.

Despite that last-minute reshuffle of the batting order, Balbirnie was delighted with the team’s performance all-round. He also indicated that the team was determined to continue that form into the final ODI on Friday.

“It was a credit to them and a win we needed as a team and I’m just really proud of the lads. We’ll enjoy this, it’s our first time ever beating them in ODI cricket so it’s a huge day for cricket in Ireland,” Balbirnie said after the game.

“At the same time you have to look at Friday, we could potentially win a series … I think the guys are eager and hungry to win a series.”

Ireland win the 2nd ODI in Malahide

Andy Balbirnie earns the player of the match award after his seventh ODI century, setting up the hosts first-ever victory over South Africa.

: @cricketireland#IREvSA | https://t.co/tfI7lliJ6g pic.twitter.com/FROUipHwU1

— ICC (@ICC) July 13, 2021

Ireland has claimed a valuable 15 World Cup Super League points from the first two games of the series. The side has now jumped from 11^th to 5^th place in the table as it stands.

If you would like to watch Ireland’s next match against South Africa, BT Sports will be televising the game, starting at 10:30.

Athleticism#IREvSA #ThatsOurGame pic.twitter.com/zRDvlRUz5G

— Cricket South Africa (@OfficialCSA) July 15, 2021

FIXTURES

The series schedule is:

World Cup Super League ODI series

11^th July: Ireland v South Africa, 1st ODI (Malahide)
13^th July: Ireland v South Africa, 2nd ODI (Malahide)
16^th July: Ireland v South Africa, 3rd ODI (Malahide)

T20I series

19^th July: Ireland v South Africa, 1st T20I (Malahide)
22^nd  July: Ireland v South Africa, 2nd T20I (Stormont)
24^th July: Ireland v South Africa, 3rd T20I (Stormont)

IRELAND MEN’S SQUADS

ODI squad

Andrew Balbirnie (captain), Mark Adair, Curtis Campher, George Dockrell, Graham Kennedy, Josh Little, Andrew McBrine, Graeme McCarter, Barry McCarthy, William Porterfield, Simi Singh, Paul Stirling, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker, Craig Young.

T20I squad

Andrew Balbirnie (captain), Mark Adair, George Dockrell, Stephen Doheny, Shane Getkate, Josh Little, Barry McCarthy, William McClintock, Kevin O’Brien, Simi Singh, Paul Stirling, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker, Ben White, Craig Young.

In 2021 Ireland have lost to Luxembourg at football and beaten South Africa at Cricket. pic.twitter.com/Q5Lu6RxxRj

— Paddy Power (@paddypower) July 13, 2021

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