|
England stutter
to beat Ireland |
March 30, 2007 (Link to
Scorecard)
 A
spirited Ireland side made England to work hard
for a 48-run win in both the teams' first match
of the Super Eights. At the Providence Stadium
in Guyana, England stuttered with both the bat
and the ball but eventually won the game with
Ireland not able to sustain the pressure moments
for longer periods of time. The stars of the
English victory were Paul Collingwood with the
bat and Freddie Flintoff with both the bat and
the ball.
Michael Vaughan won the toss to bat first only
to see his side slip down to an untidy 113 for
4. Vaughan failed once again, this time making
just 6 while Bell (31) and Pietersen (48) failed
to convert their starts into bigger ones. It was
left for Paul Collingwood to pull England out of
trouble. He did that with a smashing 90 from 82
balls with 8 fours and 3 sixes that earned him
the Man of the Match. Andrew Flintoff was
involved in an important 81-run stand with
Collingwood with the former making 43 from 62
balls. England blasted 94 runs in the last 10
overs with Collingwood contributing 55 out of
those on his own! Ireland's problem was that
they lost their best performing bowler Boyd
Rankin because of cramps. Rankin had an
impressive new ball spell of 2 for 28 in 7 overs
which also included a maiden.
In their chase of 267, Ireland lost their most
important player - Jeremy Bray off the first
ball he had faced which was only the fifth ball
of the innings. With the help of wicket keeper
batsman, Niall O'Brien, Ireland made a fight out
of the match but the asking rate was always
shooting up beyond its reach. Niall O'Brien made
63 from 88 before being stumped out off the
friendly off spin of Michael Vaughan in the 37th
over. Skipper Trent Johnston with 27 from 21
(including two sixes) and Andrew White with 38
from 35 provided fireworks towards the end. But
they were only enough to reduce the margin of
defeat which is a decent one at 48 runs. Andrew
Flintoff was good in his clean up job for which
he had used his pace and reverse swing to good
effect to take 4 for 43. Monty Panesar had an
easy outing with 2 for 31 in 10 overs. Ireland
would be proud of their efforts while England
will have to raise their game few notches up if
they have to compete against better sides.
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