Ireland put up a vigorous fight, but India proved too strong for the home team to win the rain-battered opening T20I by seven wickets on Sunday.
Harry Tector’s counterattack 64 not out of 33 balls took Ireland to 108 from four after rain reduced the game to 12 overs a side.
India was always ahead of the run rate in the chase and with contributions from Ishan Kishan (26/11), Deepak Hooda (47/29) and captain Hardik Pandya (24/12), they cruised to victory in 9.2 overs. .
Kishan continued his good form to get India off to a fast start. The first over of the innings went 15 runs as Kishan collected a pair of fours and a six from Joshua Little.
Ireland vs India was worth the wait ✨💥
The 12 overs per side clash provided serious entertainment.#IREVIND pic.twitter.com/J2EJNHEDlN
– ICC (@ICC) June 26, 2022
In a rather surprising move, Deepak Hooda opened alongside Kishan in place of Ruturaj Gaikwad. He found the rhythm of it after a rough start and took a 64-race winning position with Hardik.
Just when it looked like Indian was taking the fight, Craig Young dispatched Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav (0) in successive deliveries to boost his team’s hopes. Kishan’s stumps jerked in another attempt to knock a whole ball out of the park.
Suryakumar returned to the side after an injury break, getting a beauty first that he stitched back to catch him in front of the stumps.
However, Hardik and Hooda continued their strikes and Andy Mcbrine scored 21 runs to put India back in control.
While Hardik left after hitting three sixes, Hooda stayed until the end to hit all four winners. His innings comprised two sixes and a half dozen limits.
Earlier, India opted to bowl in overcast conditions, but rain came soon after, delaying the start of play by more than two hours and 20 minutes.
Conditions were ripe for Bhuvneshwar Kumar to make the ball talk and he did just that in the opening match.
The canny operator had the ball moving both ways before an inside hit broke Ireland captain Andrew Balbirnie’s defence.
Skipper Hardik Pandya went on the attack in the second over and grabbed two balls to see off the dangerous Paul Stirling.
After hitting the first ball over the deck, Stirling attempted the same shot, but it was not at the right time to be caught in the middle.
Avesh Khan then caught Gareth Delany in his first over to leave Ireland at 22 for three.
India was expected to outplay the opposition, but Ireland staged a spirited comeback through Tector, who went on the offensive against the Indian pacemakers, including debutant Umran Malik.
All eyes were on the Indian rhythm sensation, but he had a pretty jittery start to his international career.
He dragged his third ball down the leg side and ran to the edge of Lorcan Tucker’s pads (18 of 16). Two balls later, Tector fired a beautiful straight shot on a full shot. Malik came up short with the next one, but Hector was ready to roll a six.
Tucker crushed two successive sixes to Hardik to give more momentum to the innings.
The latter part of the innings produced 17 runs and pushed the total past 100 with Tector picking up a limit off a reverse hit from Avesh before squashing a complete pitch for six over deep coverage.
Reference-indianexpress.com