India won by 4 runs, won the series 2-0
Highlight
- Deepak Hooda has been adjudged Player of the Series
- Hooda surpassed Tendulkar’s score of 99 which was the highest by any Indian batsman in Ireland
- Deepak Hooda was adjudged man of the match for his brilliant innings of 104 runs.
The beauty of any sport is the uncertainty and the factor of luck involved. When India scored a total of 225 runs at the end of 20 overs, not many fans or experts gave any chance to the Irish side, but what emerged later was one of the examples of great effort put into the game. as will be remembered.
Riding high on victory in the first T20I, India blew all guns out for the second T20I. Sanju Samson opened the batting with Ishan Kishan and scored his first 50 in the Indian Blues.
Mumbai Indians veteran Ishan Kishan could not make any significant contribution and was dismissed cheaply by Mark Adair when he was batting on 3. Last match hero Deepak Hooda continued from where he left off and scored a scintillating century off 55 balls.
Samson and Hooda’s partnership took India to a total of 225 runs. In their quest to score more runs, the Indian batting collapsed under pressure and they lost 4 for 18 in the death overs.
Once the Irish batsmen came out to bat, they wasted no time. Paul Stirling joined hands with captain Andrew Balbirnie and shared a 72-run partnership that acted as a strong base for Ireland’s chase. Captain Balbirnie took the responsibility and he held on to one end. The Irish captain scored 60 runs in 37 balls at a strike rate of 162.16.
After the wickets of Sterling and Balbirnie fell, the Irish chase was handled by some quick cameos played by Harry Tector and George Dockrell. The Irish needed 17 overs in the last over but it was well defended by Umran Malik who was just playing his second game.
Ireland showed loads of intention and courage to pursue and pursue this mammoth of target, which they almost did, but in the end, they fell short of almost a remarkable chase.
India won the series 2-0
Ireland (Playing XI): Paul Stirling, Andrew Balbirnie (c), Gareth Delany, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker (wk), George Dockrell, Mark Adair, Andy McBrine, Craig Young, Joshua Little, Conor Olfert
India (Playing XI): Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan, Deepak Hooda, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya(C), Dinesh Karthik(W), Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar KumarHarshal Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Umran Malik