T20 World Cup’22, IRE vs WI: WI eliminated, IR wins by 9 WKTS

T20 World Cup’22, IRE vs WI: Ireland 150 for 1 (Stirling 66*, Tucker 47*) beat West Indies 146 for 5 (King 62*, Delany 3-16) by nine wickets

One of their most important victories in Twenty20 cricket came in Hobart, where it was supposed to rain all day.

Ireland defeated two-time champion West Indies in the Super-12 round of the 2022 Men’s Twenty20 World Cup.

The heroes of Ireland’s rousing performance were legspinner Gareth Delany and opening batter Paul Stirling, who played with a lot of self-assurance and explosive energy. After holding West Indies to 146 for 5, Ireland sprinted to the target in the 18th over without giving their opponents a chance, turning a potentially nerve-wracking chase in a knockout game into a breeze.

The Ireland fans, who had gathered in large numbers, broke into their trademark song and dance as they proudly waved the Irish flag in the windy Bellerive when Lorcan Tucker stepped out to loft Obed McCoy inside out over extra cover to score the winning runs.

After the T20 World Cup in England in 2009, this is only Ireland’s second time qualifying for the second round.

For his sizzling spell of 3/16, Gareth Delany is the @aramco Player of the Match from #IREvWI 👏#T20WorldCup pic.twitter.com/Fl2elF6JUZ

— ICC (@ICC) October 21, 2022

The West Indies had a rough start, losing Johnson Charles and Kyle Mayers on the powerplay to big shots. It could have been worse if offspinner Simi Singh had clung to a sharp return chance in the fifth over to run out Brandon King for one.

The batters had to reevaluate their strategy as the innings progressed because it became increasingly evident that deliveries, particularly those that were dug in, held up slightly better than the others. West Indies didn’t really get going until the eighth over, when King hit two boundaries square of the wicket when medium pacer Curtis Campher went too long.

They slowly regained some momentum after wandering toward a run-a-ball.However, Delany broke through to end a 44-run stand when he struck out struggling Ewin Lewis for the first of his three strikes of the night. This occurred just as they were beginning to set up shop. Ireland had pulled back again in the 11th over, when they were 71 for 3.

King fights in the midst of Delany’s wrath King missed the Zimbabwe game because of illness, but he quickly switched into hitting mode and showed no signs of fatigue. He was serious from the moment he lunged out to hit a second cover drive off the first ball to the boundary.

He played to the fields perfectly, hitting the gaps and short boundaries to keep churning strike over and preventing the bowlers from getting settled. Ireland were shaken for a brief period with King and Nicholas Pooran present, but when Delany struck, drifting one across to Pooran, who reached out to hit straight to sweeper cover, Ireland were back in the game.

Big-hitting Rovman Powell was fooled by Delany in the air and off the field in his third outing. He was out to deep midwicket in an over that went for just one when he tried to get a slog sweep from outside off toward the longer boundary. West Indies were struggling at 112 for 5 at 17 when Delany finished his spell with 3 for 16 off four overs.

Even though there was a sense that they were at least 20 shy of where they would have liked to be, they eventually received a late lift thanks to outstanding end-overs hitting from King and Odean Smith.

The Stirling-Balbirnie blitzkrieg Ireland’s approach to the chase was clear when they began their pursuit.While Andy Balbirnie decided he would thwart Pooran’s punt of bringing in Odean Smith, not Jason Holder, during the powerplay, Stirling kept slyly picking Akeal Hosein off with vicious sweeps.

The Ireland captain further dented Smith’s record when he took him on for a sequence of 4,6,4 off his first three deliveries to immediately put him under pressure. Smith had an economy of 11.18 in 11 overs for just three wickets in this phase. McCoy’s predictable slower variations kept getting picked off, resulting in more of the same. Ireland had scored 64 without losing in the first six overs before West Indies realised what had happened.

Holder came on in the seventh over to little or no pressure as Ireland made their way through, but when Hosein caught Balbirnie at point for a 34-ball 37 in the eighth over, West Indies only had a glimmer of hope. Holder’s no-ball and the crowd’s collective sigh of disbelief were the only things holding them back. They did not concede a boundary between overs 7.5 and 10.2, the only section in which they appeared to have control. Ireland, on the other hand, benefited greatly from the top turbocharge.

Stirling broke the tie by smashing Alzarri Joseph for six over the grass banks at deep midwicket. In the 12th over, he hit Smith behind point for four, making it his half-century in 32 balls. West Indies were now operating on fumes.

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West Indies’ day was summed up by Smith having Lorcan Tucker caught and bowled in the same over, only to discover that he had overstepped. They put their hands on each other’s heads, let out a collective sigh of disbelief, and slowly realised that they would be boarding a flight home three weeks earlier than they had planned.