It was a nightmarish start for India when Ireland won the toss and made full use of the flat conditions in Hamilton. For first fifteen overs, it was nothing but smooth sailing for Ireland openers.
Both William Porterfield and Paul Stirling treated the Indian bowlers with disdain. It was Ravichandran Ashwin who rescued and gave the first break through to his team. Before the first wicket that India got, Ireland were threatening to take their score beyond 300.
Even in the middle overs, Niall O’Brien too tried his best to dismiss the India attack completely. But Indian captain MS Dhoni had Plan B when Ireland were threatening to take the match away from India. He introduced Suresh Raina into the attack.
In the end, Raina emerged to be a perfect choice as he grabbed one crucial wickets for his team. He also bowled his quota of 10 overs and conceded 40 runs. Another part-timer Rohit Sharma too bowled a short spell. But the best bowler from India camp was Ashwin who gave only 38 runs from his spell and took those two wickets.
In nutshell, the Indian bowlers did well to restrict Ireland to a score of 259 and created a record of dismissing the opposition for the fifth time in the competition. This is the first time this record has been achieved in the ODI cricket.
So what went wrong in the first fifteen overs? The likes of Umesh Yadav and Company bowled short and allowed the Ireland to free their arms. Later, Mohammed Shami came back strongly and took three wickets to his credit.
