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Seasoned Irish Team Celebrates Landmark Victory over South Africa
Seasoned Irish Team Celebrates Landmark Victory over South Africa
This was Ireland's first T20I win against South Africa and second overall against them in internationals.
Ireland has gone a long way from home to play a match in Abu Dhabi even though their designation is the home team. The question arises why, in Ireland, they don’t have any designated grounds and they are required to land clubs when they decide to play in their country. Therefore, oddly, they travelled a long distance and spent a lot of money playing in a very different place. What made it even stranger was that just two weeks before Friday, the South Africans played three ODIs against Afghanistan in Sharjah, which is only 165 kilometres away.
Paul Stirling mentioned in a press conference that while Ireland's players were preparing for the temperature difference between Dublin and Abu Dhabi by using saunas and steam baths, the South Africans were adapting to the heat on the field.
The results were visible on Friday when Irish bowlers were sweating which made it hard for them to grip and control the ball. It happened when Ireland’s batter was reeled by South Africa. In the first 10 overs, they scored 85 runs for the loss of 3 wickets. In the next 10 overs, they only scored 86 runs and lost 5 wickets, with Patrick Kruger taking 4 wickets for 27 runs.
South Africa has an easy win by eight wickets and has 14 balls left, the credit goes to Ryan Rickelton and <span style="\\"white-space:" pre;\\"=""> Reeza Hendricks who share an open stand of 136 off 79. Rickelton made a half-century scoring 76 runs in 48 balls and that was his first international half-century in his 18 innings of every format. Meanwhile, Hendricks made 51 runs out of 33 balls delivery.
By Sunday, Ireland seems to learn some better batting skills. As, Stirling and Ross Adair made some great shots and secured 137 off 79, which was also Ireland’s second-biggest T20I opening record. The South African team seemed to be losing ground. Adair was 20 years old when he got out, but it turned out to be a no-ball from Lizaad Williams. Eight overs later, Adair had scored 78 runs without getting out when Williams hit a shot that should have been caught by Wiaan Mulder, but it went over the boundary for six runs.
Adair had quite a few lucky escapes—three catches fell short of fielders, and he would have been run out if the throw had been accurate. Despite this, he scored 100 off 58 balls, making it the third century by an Irish player in this format. This is impressive, especially since he joined the squad after Andrew Balbirnie was dropped and got his chance only because Lorcan Tucker, who was supposed to open, got injured during training.
Ireland looked like they would score well over 200, but they lost six wickets for just 43 runs in 32 balls, finishing with 195/6. Although this was their highest score against South Africa, it was still several runs short of what they should have achieved.
Rickelton and Hendricks were on course to score another two half-centuries before Rickelton carved Matthew Humphries to square leg to go for 36. Hendricks did get there, but then stopped a drive off Ben White and was juggled but well held by Stirling at short cover.
Aiden Markram hit the second ball he faced, from White, over long-on for six. But he faced just four more - he tried to reverse sweep Humphries and was bowled. With that, South Africa were 130/4 and needing more than 10 runs an over.
But they had Matthew Breetzke. He began building his flinty, intense innings when Rickelton was dismissed in the sixth, and he saw Markram and Tristan Stubbs dismissed early. Would Breetzke, in his eighth T20I innings, take his team home?
No. Breetzke was undone in an 18th over that started with six wickets standing and 28 required. It ended, after two no-balls and two wides, with no more wickets down but only five runs closer to the target. Hume bowled it with courage and cleverness, living on the edge of what was legal from a line perspective.
Mark Adair capitalised on the pressure created by removing Mulder, Breetzke - for a 41-ball 51 - and Nqaba Peter in the 19th. That left South Africa needing 18 off the last. Hume conceded seven, sealing Ireland's first win in seven T20Is against these opponents.
Stubbs' dismissal meant South Africa had lost five wickets for 25 runs, and in all eight crashed for 64. The South Africans will know they should have won. The Irish will know that if you're going to 7,520 kilometres to play a home game, you had better go home - to your real home - with something to show for it.
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