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Despite a somewhat bizarre ending to the match as a storm and floodlight failure combined to see Ireland not be allowed to bat out their 20 overs, Ireland have got the crucial 2 points with a 21 run win on Duckworth-Lewis method.
Update – Ireland win by 21 Runs on Duckworth Lewis.

Ireland have won their second Group B match with a 21 run win over the UAE following a dominant performance with bat and ball. William Porterfield’s anchor innings of 33 not out combined with a classy man of the match innings of 43 from 38 balls saw Ireland into a dominant position of 95 for 0 chasing the UAE’s total of 123 for 6. A late collapse where the wickets of Joyce, Kevin O’Brien for a second ball duck and Andrew Poynter for 4 all fell within 9 balls saw Ireland’s push for an enhanced net-run-rate be stifled before the Flood-lights failed causing a stoppage in play. Despite play resuming 10 minutes later, the flood-lights failed again with only two more balls possible, no lights combined with a storm passing through Sylhet bringing unexpected rain across the ground saw play end with Ireland ahead on 21 runs by Duckworth-Lewis and crucially taking the two points to move top of Group B.

The Irish camp will however be concerned by an injury that Paul Stirling picked up in the first over when he was hit on the right elbow and couldn’t continue to bat.

Earlier, Ireland’s bowlers fought back after the UAE got off to a flying start in Sylhet after Ireland have won the toss and decided to bowl first for the second game in a row in Group B. The United Arab Emirates got off to a flying start with the powerplay overs bringing up 46 for 1 and plenty of boundaries for the batsmen. Amjad Ali led the way at first with 20 from 19 balls before a double wicket maiden from Paul Stirling in the seventh over swung the momentum in Ireland’s favour. Despite a pair of lusty sixes hit but Shaiman Anwar, the UAE innings had the scoring rate stifled by a tight and disciplined effort from the Irish bowlers.

William Porterfield shuffled around his bowlers cleverly and used 7 bowlers in all, with the floodlights being a factor, only 4 overs of spin were bowled and Tim Murtagh came into the starting XI for Andy McBrine. Kevin O’Brien bowled 4 overs and took 2 for 17 whilst Paul Stirling also claimed 2 wickets from his 3 overs to end with 2 for 12. Tim Murtagh was the only other wicket taker for Ireland with 1 for 20 from this 4 overs and the UAE couldn’t advance their run-rate in the closing overs and finished with 123 for 6 from their 20 overs.

Full Report to Follow

There Scorecard in full is here.

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Venue: Sylhet International Cricket Stadium, Sylhet
Umpires: Marais Erasmus, Ian Gould, Steve Davis, Bruce Oxenford
Referee: David Boon

Ireland XI: W Porterfield*, P Stirling, E Joyce, G Wilson+, A Poynter, K O’Brien, S Thompson, M Sorensen, A Cusack, G Dockrell, T Murtagh

UAE XI: A Ali, F Asif, K Khan*, S Patil+, S Anwar, R Mustafa, V Shetty, A Javed, A Raza, K Shahzad, A Shareef

Ed Joyce has been named Man of the Match for his innings of 43.

Cricket Ireland
Ireland’s first wicket was a run-out © Barry Chambers
[1986] Ireland win over UAE – ireland-win-over-uae
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