The series consisted of just one match played at the stadium in Belfast, the capital of Ireland. Australia with its focus on the one day series in England sought the match as a preparation against the Ashes rival after losing the test series. Ireland was led by William Porterfield who is an opening left handed batsman. The match was interesting as the rain made the pitch damp. Ireland pace attack is very impressive and can give sleepless nights to its opposition. Australia knew that and never took the contest lightly.
Australia was lucky to have won the toss and opted to bat first. It was a damp sky and the rain expected any time. Since the outfield was wet, the match started late and numbers of overs were reduced to 47 for each side. Another interruption due to rain occurred in the 32nd and the 41st over when the Australian Innings stopped.
The rain marred play continued with targets for Ireland revised to 195 runs in 27 over which was then again reduced to 24 over due to additional delay. In the solitary match, Joe Burns from Australia made his debut. A lot had been said about the bowling of Ireland but initially they failed to create an impression on the Australian openers. Burns and Warner started in a typical fashion of dominating the pace attack. Joe hit three boundaries on consecutive deliveries and quickly ran into double figures without any problem. Warne made quick fire 84 runs of 80 balls and both openers made marry when the power play was in force.
From Ireland’s perspective, the most impressive figure was of TIM MURTAGH, the medium pacer who took 2 wickets and gave away only 45 runs in the allotted 10 over. He was instrumental in putting the brakes on the Australian innings.
Ireland started chasing on a dismal note as its openers couldn’t handle accurate bowling from Michelle STARC. He delivered scintillating Yorkers that uprooted the stumps of the openers. NEIL O BRIEN tried very hard to stem the rot but the required run rate increased consistently all throughout the inning. He scored 45 runs of 53 balls to create a solid foundation for the run chase however the tail was not up to the task. Coulter Nile with his accurate bowling got better off CA Young and AR Mc Brine. Meanwhile JF Mooney was run out due to an accurate throw from George Bailey. Apart from Brien, Joyce also played his part by knocking a score of 44 runs of 33 balls. The soft wet pitch had no demons but accurate bowling from the Australians and pedestrian batting from the tail Enders of the Ireland caused problems and resulted in a resounding defeat of the host.
As far as the Australian pacers were concerned, everybody bowled with a venom and purpose. STARC send down 5 over, gave away 34 runs and picked two crucial wickets. Coulter Nile and Cummins also pitched in with 3 and 2 wickets respectively. Australia won the match by 27 runs and David Warner was awarded the man of the match due to his amazing innings of 84 runs from 80 balls.