England, who is one of the favorites to win the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, suffered a huge upset by defeating to Ireland by 5 runs on D/L Method.
At the match of Group 1 held at Melbourne in Australia on Wednesday, winning the toss, England elected to bowl first.
Irish veteran opener Paul Starling got out in third over, but fine innings from Andy Balbirnie and Lorcan Tucker took them a strong stand.
Balbirnie scored 62 off 47 balls, and Tucker scored 34 off 27.
England’s Liam Livingstone and Mark Wood took 3 wickets for 17 and 34 runs respectively.
In reply, England failed to have a good start as lost two openers in just 14 runs.
One-downer Dawid Malan scored 37 off 35 balls, but that was not enough to take them out of danger.
England was 105 for 5 in 14.3 overs thanks to attacking 24 off 12 balls from Moeen Ali, when the rain came heavily and spoiled the match.
As the match wasn’t resumed later on, Ireland won by 5 runs on D/L method.
Balbirnie was judged Player of the Match for his brilliant batting performance.
Bd-pratidin English/Lutful Hoque
