With the help of Paul Stirling’s sparkling half century, Ireland defeated the defending champion West Indies by nine wickets in Hobart on Friday. Advancing to the Super 12 round of the T20 World Cup. Ireland knock Windies out of T20 World Cup, reach Super 12’s.
At Bellerive Oval on a foggy afternoon, the big redhead’s unbeaten 66 from 48 balls propelled Ireland to victory over a lowly 146-5 total in just 48 overs. In spite of Brandon King’s unbeaten 62, the West Indies were eliminated in the group round. This marked the quickest exit for the Caribbean side since the tournament’s inception in South Africa in 2007.
Ireland knock Windies out of T20 World Cup, reach Super 12’s
Ireland dropped their season opener to Zimbabwe, but they came back with a great chase to beat Scotland on Wednesday and were nearly perfect against the West Indies, the champions in 2012 and 2016.
“It’s tough. We haven’t batted well this tournament at all and on a really good batting surface, coming here making 145 was really difficult,” said West Indies captain Nicholas Pooran.
“In saying that, congratulations to Ireland. I think they batted fantastically and they bowled well today.”
Stirling and captain Andy Balbirnie blasted to a 73-run opening partnership before Balbirnie was caught cutting for 37. And the West Indies were helpless to defend their score. Lorcan Tucker, the Irish team’s No. 3, partnered with Stirling in the middle. He smashed 45 runs without losing a wicket as Ireland easily won their Group B qualifying match.
Tucker danced his way down the wicket and smashed Obed McCoy over extra cover for four to bring up the winning runs. It was met with raucous applause from the few Irish spectators there.
While Ireland has been a regular presence in World Cups over the previous decade. This is only their second time advancing to the knockout stage of the T20 competition. Since the last time it was held in England in 2009.
“It means everything. We had a really disappointing loss last year at the same stage.” captain Balbirnie said of the 2021 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates.
“We did a lot of thinking, a lot of things changed back home.
“Losing the first game (here). Then coming back and beating a two-time champion in a must-win game – just couldn’t be prouder.
“We’re just delighted as a group.”
