Abu Dhabi, Oct 18 (UNI) In a clinical finish, Ireland beat Netherlands comfortably by seven wickets in the Group A of T20 World Cup qualifiers.
The losers could score only 106 runs, after which Ireland achieved the target in 15.1 overs by losing 3 wickets, who got 2 points up in the points table.
Netherlands got off to a really inauspicious start, losing Ben Cooper in the first over of the match.
Max O’Dowd (51) played a responsible knock, but Curtis Campher’s world record four wickets off four balls pushed Netherlands out of the game.
Kudos to skipper Andrew Balbirnie, who pinned faith in Campher even though he conceded 12 runs in his very first over. The all-rounder responded by spelling magic by joining the elite club of Lasith Malinga and Rashid Khan, for taking four wickets in four consecutive balls in T20s.
Rashid had achieved the feat against Ireland in 2019 while Malinga did this against New Zealand in the same year.
Apart from Max, only captain Peter Seelar (21) was successful in crossing the 20-run mark.
The Irish batsmen made sure to finish off the paltry target of 107 set by Netherlands casually with Gareth Delany (44) playing an aggressive innings and Paul Stirling playing a rather sedate one. Delany cracked 5 fours and 2 sixes in his innings of 29 balls.
Campher was declared man of the match. “I just kept bowling the right length and probing lines, and hence I could achieve the milestone,” he said.
