The twentieth match of the tournament was played between England vs Ireland in Melbourne Cricket Stadium Australia on Wednesday 26 October 2022 in which Ireland beat England again in the world cup stage. Before this Ireland beat England in the ODI world cup 2011 in which the batting first England scored 327/8 runs. Whose response Ireland chased 328 runs on the very first ball of the last over with a boundary and finish with 329/7 runs. Kevin O’Brien helps Ireland to win the match with his match-winning 113 runs on just 63 balls and make England out of the tournament. Now after almost eleven years Ireland again beat England in the World cup but this time it’s the ICC T20 World cup 2022.
Match Preview
England won the toss and invite Ireland for batting first. Ireland loses its first wicket of Paul Stirling on just twenty-one runs in the third over of Mark Wood. After that Ireland played brilliantly and scored 59/1 in the powerplay and in the eleventh over Ireland was 97/1. But in the final ball of the twelfth over Adil Rashid’s captain, Andrew Balbirine hits straight back to the bowler, ball touch Rashid’s hand and hits the stumps as Lorcan Tucker was out of the crease when hits the stumps and England break the partnership with Lorcan Turcker runout wicket.
A much-needed wicket for England and after that, not any other batsman stayed longer on to the crease so Ireland failed to put a large total on the board and the whole Ireland team bowled after scoring 157 runs in 19.2 overs. In chasing 158 runs England did not get a good start and lost their first wicket of captain and wicket-keeper batter Jos Buttler on the second delivery of the first over of Joshua Little. England finishes powerplay 37/3 runs. England’s strong batting lineup struggling in front of Irish bowlers.
England finishes the first of the second inning with 63/3 runs in 10 overs. Every England player struggled in front of Ireland’s bowling line up only Moeen Ali played well in front of Irish bowlers and score 24 runs in 12 deliveries and hit three fours and a maximum. On the fifteenth rain interrupt the game. England was 105/5 in 14.3 overs. According to Duckworth–Lewis–Stern (DLS) method England was five runs behind so match umpires declared Ireland as the winner of the game. Ireland won by 5 runs with the DLS method.
Player of the Match
Ireland captain and opening batter Andrew Balbirine played an important knock of 62 runs faced 47 deliveries and a strike rate of 131.91. His 62 runs and 82 runs partnership with Wicketkeeper batter Lorcan Tucker help Ireland to put a fighting total on the board. Andrew Balbirine won the player of the match award for his sensible knock of 62 runs.
Best Bowler of the Match
Joshua Little was the best bowler of the match. He bowls 3 overs and conceded just 16 runs and get 2 important wickets from Captain Jos Buttler and Alex Hales in his first 2 overs and put England under pressure. Joss Buttler scored 0 runs facing 2 deliveries and Alex Hales scored just 7 runs facing 5 deliveries. England Mark Wook took 3 wickets but he conceded 34 runs in his 4 overs. Another world cup match was scheduled New Zealand vs Afghanistan which was also played in the Melbourne Cricket Stadium Australia but it was abandoned without a ball bowled due to heavy rain in Melbourne.