At the Twenty20 World Cup in Melbourne on Wednesday, Ireland pulled off a stunning upset by defeating the second-ranked team in the world, England, by five runs.
Ireland was given the opportunity to bat, and after four balls, they were all out for 157. Rain forced the conclusion of play after 14.3 overs with England’s chase at 105-5, five runs below the DLS scoring system.
As the Irish bowlers found pace and movement, England’s batting lineup struggled to gain any traction, falling to 29-3 after five overs with just one boundary.
After the game’s first eighteen minutes were lost to rain, the players were once more removed, this time permanently, with England on 105-5 after 14.3 overs, just as Moeen Ali was finding his stride with 24 off 12 balls.
The DLS scoring system put England five runs behind, giving Ireland a historic victory.
Man of the Match Balbirnie described it as “wonderful, kind of emotional.”
“Our message was to just create chances and we know how this England team like to play, if we take every chance then we would be in with a shot.
“This will do a lot to grow the game back home.”
It was Ireland’s second massive upset of the tournament after they beat West Indies in the first round to send the two-time champions home.
England was among the title favorites and heavily fancied to beat Ireland after opening their tournament with a five-wicket win over Afghanistan at the weekend.
Instead, the shock defeat has thrown Group 1 wide open with Australia, Sri Lanka, Ireland, and England all now with one win and one defeat. New Zealand also has one win and plays Afghanistan in their second match later Wednesday.
Jos Buttler, the captain of England, remarked, “We were not consistent enough, allowing them to score on both sides.”
We had the toss in our favor, choosing the field knowing the weather, and there were some favorable bowling conditions. We chose not to exploit that.
The superior team won because they surpassed us in all three areas of the game. We have increased the pressure on ourselves because we realize we made a mistake here.
