England were well placed to beat Ireland when rain washed out the first of two 50-over games between the under-19 sides at Grace Road.
Ireland struggled throughout the difficult batting conditions at Grace Road and were bowled out inside 40 overs for just 94 – England were only 4 overs into their reply when a torrential downpour struck the Leicester venue.
The hosts shared the wickets around in restricting their opponents 94 all out in 38.4 overs. Essex seamer Reece Topley was the pick of an extremely economical attack with 1-13 from seven overs.
Following Graeme McCarter’s excellent early run-out of Alex Davies, Daniel Bell-Drummond and Ben Foakes steered England to 22 for one from 4.1 overs when rain ended proceedings; the former had 13 and the latter eight.
The torrential downpours left the outfield saturated and meant tomorrow’s encounter between the sides would have to be played at a new – but as yet undetermined – venue.
Home captain Adam Ball capitalised on winning the toss by having Robin Kelly lbw and snaring Jason van der Merwe for a duck in consecutive overs.
Opener Ryan Hunter briefly prospered but was caught behind for 25 off Craig Overton, after which Shozair Ali and Aneesh Kapil respectively removed Andy McBrine for 11 and Tyrone Kane for nought.
Sam Wood accounted for Shane Getkate and Topley for Ireland skipper George Dockrell before Tom Knight trapped Barry McCarthy in front for 15 and bowled Adam Coughlan either side of Kapil having McCarter caught behind – Foakes taking his pouching his fourth dismissal.
Following the torrential rain at Grace Road, Leicestershire CCC today, the second game planned for this Friday 20th July will have to be moved to a new venue. This game will now be played at Loughborough.
Cricket Ireland
A saturated Grace Road outfield yesterday.
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