New Zealand, who’s one of the favourites to win the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, defeated ‘Giant Killer’ Ireland by 35 runs in Group 1 match held on Friday at Adelaide Oval in Australia.
Winning the toss, Ireland elected to field first. Top order NZ batters clicked as openers Finn Alen scored 32 off 18 balls, and one downer captain Kane Williamson hammered 61 off 35 balls.
Despite, hat trick of Ireland’s first bowler Josh Little at the end of NZ innings, they managed to pursue a decent total of 185 for 6.
In reply, Ireland got a good start with the openers Paul Starling and Andy Balbirnie as they scored 37 off 27 balls and 30 off 25 balls respectively. But, after their fall, rest of the batters didn’t able to keep the pace with the run rate to win the match and managed to score just 150 for 9.
Lockie Ferguson was the most successful NZ bowler who took 3 wickets for 22 runs.
Bd-pratidin English/Lutful Hoque
