India toy with Ireland, enter Super Eights
Reigning champions India warmed up for the Super Eights of the World
Twenty20 by crushing hapless Ireland by eight wickets on Wednesday.
Left-arm seamer Zaheer Khan claimed four for 19, including three
wickets in seven balls, to restrict Ireland to 112-8 in a match reduced
to 18-overs-a-side due to rain.
Young opener Rohit Sharma then hit an unbeaten 52 off 45 balls as
India romped home with 15 balls to spare to end the preliminary league
with two successive wins.
Gautam Gamhir chipped in with 37 in a first-wicket stand of 77 with
Sharma in front of a sell-out crowd at Trent Bridge. The Irish, surprise
qualifiers for the Super Eights, never recovered from Zaheer’s triple
strike which reduced them to 28-4 by the seventh over.
Andrew White top-scored with 29 as four of the top six batsmen failed
to reach double figures.
Left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha picked up two for 18 in his four overs.
Both teams had already advanced to the Super Eights after knocking
Bangladesh out of the competition.
Ireland took the field without star batsman Niall O’Brien, who was
resting a sprained ankle, and burly seamer Trent Johnson also missed out
to freshen up for the second round.
NOTTINGHAM, AFP
SCORECARD
Ireland
W. Porterfield c Yusuf b Zaheer 05
J. Bray b Zaheer 00
G. Wilson b Harbhajan 19
A. Botha c Yusufb Zaheer 08
K. O’Brien b Ojha 02
J. Mooney c Yuvraj b Ojha 19
A. White c Dhoni b Zaheer 29
R. West run out 01
A. Cusack not out 12
K. McCallan not out 09
Extras: (lb6, w2) 08
Total (8 wkts, 18 overs) 112
Fall of wickets: 1-4, 2-9, 3-17, 4-28, 5-48, 6-72, 7-73, 8-92.
Bowling: Irfan 3-0-22-0 (w1), Zaheer 3-0-19-4 (w1), Ishant 3-0-18-0,
Yuvraj 1-0-4-0, Ojha 4-0-18-2, Harbhajan 4-0-25-1
India
G. Gambhir c Rankin b West 37
R. Sharma not out 52
M. Dhoni c Bray b McCallan 14
Y. Singh not out 03
Extras: (lb4, w3) 07
Total (2 wkts, 15.3 overs) 113
Fall of wickets: 1-77, 2-100.
Bowling: Rankin 4-0-28-0, K. O’Brien 2-0-17-0, Cusack 2-0-13-0, West
4-0-23-1 (w2), McCallan 3.3-0-28-1 (w1). |
