The engaging action continued in the 20-20 World Cup as England and Ireland locked horns at Melbourne Cricket Ground on Wednesday. England captain Jos Buttler won the toss and invited Ireland to bat first. Irish Openers Andrew Balbirnie and Paul Stirling walked out to the crease to give their team a fiery start. Stirling looked in good touch as he took the attack on England right from the word go. However, his stay didn’t last long as he was dismissed by Mark Wood.
Lorcan Tucker arrived at the crease following the loss of the first wicket at the score of 21. Tucker and Balbirnie got involved in a magnificent partnership of 82 runs off 57 balls and had their eyes set on a daunting total. However, following Tucker’s wicket on 103, Ireland lost another wicket in the form of Harry Tector on the same score.
At the other end, Balbirnie continued with his good knock as he brought up his half-century in 40 balls. Curtis Campher also gave support to Balbirnie by smashing three boundaries in his short cameo of 18 off 11 balls. Balbirnie was finally dismissed on the score of 132 after 15.3 overs having scored 62 off 47 balls. Ireland completely lost their way and suffered a dramatic collapse which saw them getting all out for 157 without playing their full quota of 20 overs.
England's chase got off to the worst possible start as they lost their captain Buttler on just the second ball of their innings. Joshua Little further picked up another wicket as he removed Alex Hales giving England their second blow on 14.
England’s biggest hope Ben Stokes also couldn’t do anything to take his team out of misery as he was cleaned up by Fionn Hand. Dawid Malan tried to stabilise the innings with his gritty knock but couldn’t keep up with the required run rate. Youngster Harry Brook also perished under pressure leaving England in all sorts of trouble at 67/4 in 11 overs.
England lost the well-set Dawid Malan on the score of 86 after 13.1 overs as Ireland smelled a famous win. Moeen Ali tried his best to keep his side in the hunt with his knock of 24 off 12 balls before the heavens opened their doors and rain came pouring down to make matters worse for England.
At 105/5 after 14.3 overs, England were five runs behind the DLS par score as the rain got heavier. The rain was relentless and showed no signs of subsiding with the cut-off time drawing near. Finally, the umpires made the call that no further play could be possible and declared Ireland the winner of the match as per DLS. Here’s how Twitter reacted to Ireland’s emphatic win:
Is there enough Irish whisky in the city of Melbourne?#ENGvIRE #T20WorldCup
— Farzan Patel (@TheTipsyParsi) October 26, 2022
Massive dent on England campaign of #T20WorldCup2022
— Reetu (@reetualism) October 26, 2022
Ireland the team which deserved the win today.
Ireland outplayed England in both bowling and batting departments.#ENGvIRE
England can now blame Australia,
— Oninthough G (@OninthoughG) October 26, 2022
the rains and DLS for their defeat. #ENGvIRE #ICCWorldCup2022 #ICCT20WorldCup2022
Congrats to Ireland. They would remember this game for years to come. Unlucky for England who look to get back into the game with the way Moeen Ali was batting. Would have been an interesting finish. #ENGvIRE #T20WorldCup
— Umair (@umair1131) October 26, 2022
History repeats. 11.5 years since that crazy night in Bangalore. 😃 #ENGvIRE
— Thejas Ravindranath (@vrthejas) October 26, 2022
Rain is an important factor during #T20WorldCup2022 - I hope teams maintain their runrate according to D/L method - Sad day for #England cricket team.
— jack (@silent_anas) October 26, 2022
Congratulations #Ireland 👏#T20WorldCup #ENGvIRE
Even though Ireland wins , But Its Highly Unlikely that We see semifinalists other than Eng or Aus or NZ. #T20WC2022 #T20WorldCup2022 #ENGvIRE
— CA Mrityunjay Mishra (@hellomjmishra) October 26, 2022
#ENGvIRE no team is weak in this World Cup get ready to see similar surprise results in the tournament This is going to be most interesting World Cup What a performance team #Ireland 👌👏👏
— Aamir (@Aamir11419334) October 26, 2022
Well well played ....ireland &&& well played DLS 😜😜😜also #ENGvIRE
— Vijay Kumar (@VijayKh48279513) October 26, 2022
Scenes at the MCG! Ireland stick one to the Poms - there’s nothing quite like seeing the English suffer🔥 #ENGvIRE #T20WorldCup
— Paul Dresdon (@kingpaul52) October 26, 2022
We r in 21st century and yet we have to deal wd rain we have to stop playing if its #rain. #ICC shall make a standard fr international grounds to make arrangements in which rain doesn't spoil a #Cricket
— Bano Ambaréén (@BanoAmbareen) October 26, 2022
Match.#ENGvIRE@T20WorldCup