It’s been a good month for Ireland Cricket so far. Every now and then, they’ve created headlines for beating top cricketing nations and they nearly did it once again at home, nearly getting over the line against New Zealand in the 3rd and final ODI of the 3-match series. They missed out narrowly on winning the first game too, lost the second one too, and the 0-3 whitewash was completed today.
But they won’t be unhappy at all, as it wasn’t a small total that they were chasing down. After batting first, New Zealand put up a massive total of 360/6 thanks to a quick fifty from Henry Nicholls and a seventeenth ODI century from Martin Guptill. And Ireland went on to almost complete the chase thanks to two centuries from their top order batters, nearly completing their highest ODI chase ever.
Paul Stirling, Harry Tector get centuries
Even though they ended up losing the match and series, the game was an absolute spectacle. The crowds would’ve been super happy with the cricket on display, but they would’ve been happy if they ended on the winning side. All three games were pretty tight and could’ve gone either way, but the lack of experience of playing regular cricket led to the Irish downfall.
It was only the end of last month that India toured Ireland too, and there also the hosts fell short by 4 runs in the second T20I. Lat night, there scored 359/9 and fell short of a record chase by one run. Opening batsman and one of their most experienced one, Paul Stirling laid the foundation with a fine century, being dismissed right when he began to up the scoring rate.
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Stirling has been around for years and he got to his 13th ODI century in this game, smashing all the bowlers across the park. He’s always been a destructive batsman especially in the limited overs formats, and his talent was on display in his knock of 120(103) which included 14 fours and 5 massive sixes. He paired with youngster Harry Tector in a fine partnership for the third wicket.
They were 62/2 when this pair began and they built a brilliant partnership, putting up 179 runs together where Tector also managed to get to a century, ending with 108(106) till he fell to a poor shot against Mitchell Santner. He’s surely someone to watch out for as he scored his maiden ODI century in the 1st ODI against New Zealand, bringing up his second one just a few days later.
He was the start batsman in the series against India as well, and has got a very bright future indeed. It’s unfortunate that they weren’t able to celebrate a victory after putting up the most amazing individual innings, the two of them. For more updates on cricket and other sports from around the world, make sure you stay tuned to ReadScoops.com…
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