England narrowly avoid Ireland embarrassment
Joe Denly top-scored on England debut
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Thursday, 27, Aug 2009 08:43
By Will Haine.
England scraped past Ireland in a rain affected one-day match in Belfast as they prepare for a one-day series against Australia.
In their first match since claiming Ashes victory last week, England posted a meagre 203-9 from their 50 overs. The rain then came and Ireland were set a reduced target of 116 to win from 20 overs.
Only four of the Ashes heroes from the final Test were in the team, but it was still a match England were expected to win comfortably.
Ireland had looked in prime position to seal a shock win after Paul Stirling (30) accelerated the scoring and when he fell they needed 60 to win fro 60 balls.
They continued to find the runs and at one stage needed 42 runs from 54 balls with six wickets in hand.
But the hosts fell agonisingly short, making 113-9 from their allotted overs. Owais Shah was the unlikely bowling hero for England as he took 3-16 in the final overs.
Stand in captain Paul Collingwood won the toss and chose to bat first but England got off to a truly dreadful start.
Ravi Bopara continued his poor run of form with the bat for his country when he was caught in the slips off the bowling of Trent Johnston (4-26) for a duck.
England's Ashes debut centurion, Jonathan Trott, was next to go when he was trapped lbw by Johnston without bothering the scorers. The visitors were reeling on 11-2.
It was then down to Kent opener Joe Denly, who was making his England debut, and Matt Prior to set about rebuilding.
The pair put on 53 in 15.1 overs before Prior was dismissed for 29.
Collingwood (9) was the next England man to go after miscuing a pull shot and Shah (21) soon followed when he was caught at point.
Denly moved to his maiden international half-century before he was adjudged lbw for 67.
A breezy knock from Luke Wright (36) and a late flurry from Tim Bresnan (14) assured England made it past 200.
Bresnan then carried his form into the Ireland innings, taking two wickets in his first two overs to leave the hosts on 25-2.
Stirling then started to find the boundary regularly and when he returned a simple catch to Adil Rashid, Ireland were still in a commanding position.
But it was the bowling of Shah which was the downfall of Ireland with the part-time off-spinner picking up the vital wickets to seal the win for England.
England now begin their one-day campaign against Australia with a Twenty20 international on Sunday.