India vs Ireland 1st T20I: In cricket, most emphasis is often given to one thing – basics. Every coach and every player mentions this. The most basic thing in batting is to keep the defense strong by keeping your footwork consistent. In bowling, along with accurate line-length, keep in mind that there should be no no balls. Similarly, there is a basic of fielding – never leave the catch. Whoever makes mistakes in these basic matters gets punished. Team India got such a severe punishment at the hands of Ireland, against whom it dropped not one or two but 3 catches and then Ireland took advantage of this and defeated India for the first time.
Before the start of the T20 series in Belfast on 26th June, the discussion was going on that by how big a margin Team India would defeat Ireland. But when the match ended, the story was completely opposite. In the very first match of the T20 series, host Ireland defeated India by a huge margin of 34 runs. Ireland did not allow Team India to play the full 20 overs or even score 150 runs. Team India was all out for just 148 runs in 18.5 overs.
Ireland’s bowlers played a big role in this victory and full credit goes to them. But in this historic victory of the Irish team, Team India also fully supported the hosts. India bowled first in this match and took 3 wickets in just 30 runs in the powerplay. But despite this, Ireland scored 182 runs, which was the record for the highest score on this ground in Belfast. This happened because Team India dropped 3 catches, out of which 2 were very heavy on it.
The Indian team made its first mistake in the third over, when Shivam Dubey dropped the catch on the ball of Arshdeep Singh. The ball went for a four. This catch was of Tim Tector, who was on only 4 runs at that time. Although he was out in the very next over, he was out at the score of 17 after adding 13 runs. The next catch drop was the most fatal for India. In the 11th over, Abhishek Sharma took an easy catch of Gareth Delaney, who was then on just 8 runs. Delaney again played a quick inning of 49 runs (32 balls), which included 3 consecutive sixes and 1 four in Prasidh Krishna’s over.
One such mistake was made by Washington Sundar in the 13th over, who dropped the catch of Irish captain Lorcan Tucker. This catch was a little more difficult than the other two but was expected to be caught at the level of international cricket. Tucker was then on only 28 runs. The ball touched Sundar’s hand and went for 4 runs. The Irish captain took advantage of this and played an inning of 50 runs. During this, he and Delaney together turned the tables by scoring 46 runs in just 2 overs. That means, overall, Team India paid the price of 3 catches by giving away a total of 76 runs, which became the reason for the defeat.
Leave a Reply