1st T20 international Ireland 139-7 (20 ovs) (B McCarthy 51no, C Campher 39; R Bishnoi 2-23, J Bumrah 2-24, P Krishna 2-32), India 47-2 (6.5 ovs) (Y Jaiswal 24; C Young 2-2). Rain stopped play, India won by 2 runs on DLS.
With Storm Betty lingering on the horizon, it was miraculous that enough cricket was played to force a result in the opening game of the three-match T20 series between Ireland and India on a wet Friday evening in Malahide.
Despite the best efforts of Storms Jasprit, Barry and Craig to steal the narrative, ultimately Betty had the last laugh as the heavens opened six overs into India’s innings, the visitors doing just enough to have themselves ahead on Duckworth Lewis and earn a narrow two-run victory.
After visiting skipper Jasprit Bumrah, back after almost a year out due to severe back injuries, won the toss and elected to bowl, his double strike to remove Andrew Balbirnie and Lorcan Tucker in the game’s first over threatened to end the contest as soon as it started.
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Barry McCarthy, who has flirted with game-changing knocks in the past, blasted his way to a career-best unbeaten 51 off 31 deliveries. His innings, alongside 39 from Curtis Campher added a modicum of respectability, bringing Ireland to a total of 139 after at one stage finding themselves at 31 for five.
In reply, India started sedately as McCarthy, Mark Adair and Josh Little hammered away at a back of a length on a sluggish Malahide pitch. India’s openers failed to adjust and when Craig Young came into the attack to bowl the seventh over, back-to-back wickets to remove Yashasvi Jaiswal and the in-form Tilak Varma first ball thrust Ireland firmly back into the contest.
Cue Betty arriving with her promised vengeance. With India marginally ahead on the rain calculations, umpires Roly Black and Mark Hawthorne took the players off, never to return.
The defeat continues an Irish habit of starting a series that was preceded by a break of a few weeks slowly. Not that it looked that way from the game’s first ball, Balbirnie flicking Bumrah off his pads with disdain to start proceedings with a boundary.
One ball later, Bumrah was back on script, swinging one through Balbirnie’s defences, bowling Ireland’s now former skipper via the inside edge. Three balls later, Tucker joined his Pembroke team-mate in the sheds after an attempted ramp shot offered wicketkeeper Sanju Samson an easy chance.
Twice Bumrah wheeled away in celebration with a customary shrug of the shoulders. For all the talk of a mismatch between these two sides, even he was shocked at how easily a return to the international stage was treating him.
Things only got worse for Ireland before they got better. Harry Tector departed trying to use the pace off T20 debutant Prasidh Krishna, the ball sticking in the slow surface before ballooning to point. New captain Paul Stirling was bowled when failing to read a Ravi Bishnoi googly, while George Dockrell too was dismissed mistiming a shorter delivery.
Ireland’s collapse was the worst-case scenario after a decision to ease fit-again Gareth Delany back into things by not playing him until game three of this series. The move to elongate Ireland’s tail seemed to backfire majorly, with McCarthy in at number eight in just the 11th over.
It took a career-best innings from another Pembroke man to spare his selectors’ blushes. The shackles were first removed by launching Bishnoi straight back over his head on the rare occasion he tossed the ball up. Further boundaries came with an authoritative pull, a strong drive and another heave down the ground.
At the other end, Campher reminded Bumrah of how difficult international cricket is supposed to be by catching up to a missed yorker and launching him high into the Malahide trees.
India’s death bowling thereafter ranged from the sublime to ridiculous. Overs 18 and 19, bowled by Bumrah and Arshdeep Singh, cost just three runs. Overs 16,17 and 20 went for a combined 50.
Bumrah’s mistakes to Campher and Arshdeep losing his way in the final over allowed the contest to be preserved. McCarthy’s maximum off the final delivery of the innings brought up his maiden international half-century and wrested momentum Ireland’s way.
India were never fluid in response, but did just enough. Adair bowled two wayward deliveries in the first over of the chase and was punished. Little and McCarthy followed up by dragging their lengths back, ensuring Jaiswal and Ruturaj Gaikwad had to work hard for scoring chances on the two-paced pitch.
Jaiswal’s innings wasn’t pretty, but two bludgeoned boundaries off Little’s final three deliveries proved the difference. A charging drive and handsome pull shot brought 10 runs, ensuring that despite Young’s double strike one over later, India were just about on the right side of the Duckworth Lewis ledger.
