Email This Article To Someone!
Ireland's Under 19 World Cup campaign got off to the worst possible start, as they crashed to a ten wicket defeat at the hands of a very disciplined and determined England side.
The influential James Hall failed a late fitness test of his calf injury, and then skipper Greg Thompson lost a crucial toss, on a pitch which offered plenty of assistance early on.
The opening attack of Steve Finn and James Harris, who play in the English County Championship with Middlesex and Glamorgan respectively, caused the top order plenty of trouble, and backed up by athletic fielding, they always had Ireland in difficulty.
They lost their first wicket in the 3rd over, Paul Stirling edging an attempted cut low to Alex Wakely at 2nd slip with the total on 4.
Ben Ackland's first two scoring shots were text book cover drives, but he too was caught by Wakely off Harris, with 23 on the board.
7 runs later and James Shannon was back in the pavilion - brilliantly caught by wicket-keeper Ben Brown, diving acrobatically in front of first slip, in Chris Woakes' first over.
30 for 3 soon became 42 for 4, as Andrew Balbirnie (3), was trapped lbw by Woakes, as the ball continued to move off the seam, and swing prodigiously.
Opener Chris Dougherty remained steadfast at the other end, digging in and adapting to the difficult conditions. He and Graeme Mc Donnell added 23, before Mc Donnell attempted an extravagant hockey style shot through midwicket - he only succeeded in edging it down to third man, where Finn took a brilliant running catch.
Dougherty then went on the offensive, pulling James Harris for six, just managing to clear the boundary as Steve Finn caught it, but in doing so stepped over the rope. He then repeated the shot, but this time kept it along the ground.
He and Greg Thompson had added 20, but having failed to get off the mark in 14 balls, Thompson lost patience attempting to slog sweep Tom Westley, presenting Harris with a regulation catch at deep mid-wicket. Two balls later, Dougherty on 34 edged Westley behind - he faced 64 balls hitting 3 fours and a six.
Gavin Mc Kenna (16) and Stuart Poynter (7*) batted sensibly, but the re-introdcution of Finn brought the innings to a swift conclusion. He clean bowled Mc Keena and Keaveney in successive balls, and although Britton survived the hat-trick, he was caught behind off Harris the next ball he faced, leaving Ireland 109 all out in 31.2 overs.
That proved no trouble to the English opening batsmen, who took just 15.5 overs, the game finishing on the stroke of lunch.
Both James Taylor (52*), and Ben Godleman (38*), struck 7 boundaries, as none of the Irish attack proved troublesome.
Ireland coach Brian O' Rourke was naturally disappointed, "It was just one of those games when nothing went right. It was a good toss to win, and to be fair to England, their bowlers were impressive and backed it up on the field. It's a steep learning curve for us, but hopefully we'll bounce back and do better against Bangladesh on Wednesday."
Match Scorecard