William McClintock and Sonny Cott both scored half centuries, as Ireland Under-19s got their World Cup Qualification campaign off to a winning start against host Jersey in the ICC Europe Under-19 Division One today.
Final Scorecard
Opening the batting, the Irish duo put on 81 for the first wicket in just over 10 overs, as Ireland came flying out of the traps in pursuit of the target of 171 set by Jersey in the first innings.
McClintock in particular was aggressive against anything loose form the Jersey attack and he raced to his 50 in just 35 balls – including six 4s and one 6 – before being bowled by Thomas Ward.
Cott was joined by captain Jack Tector, who got a good start, but was caught by Grant Donaldson off the bowling of Benjamin Ward for 13 off 22 balls. Cott passed the 50 mark soon after before he was out to a good catch behind by William Harris off Harrison Carlyon for a well made 51 from 59 balls including six 4s.
Dennison took up the chase for Ireland and finished 23 not out alongside keeper-batsman Lorcan Tucker (6*) as Ireland crossed the finish line with 6 wickets and 19.1 overs to spare.
Earlier, leg-spinner Ben White was the pick of the Irish attack claiming 3-33 off his 10 overs, as the Jersey batsman struggled to gain any real momentum after openers William Robertson (13*) and Ben Ward (23*) departed having put on 57 for the first wicket.
Robert Duckett (45*) and skipper Solomon Warner (23) were the only other batsmen to pass the 20 run mark, as the home side finished their innings on 170-9 in 50 overs.
Tom Stanton was impressive with the ball for Ireland picking up 2-29 from his 10 overs including 4 maidens, while Gary McClintock went for just 21 from his 10 overs and picked up two wickets in the process. Rory Anders (1-34) bowled well at the top of the innings, and picked up the wicket of Carlyon in the closing stages.
Speaking exclusively to www.cricketireland.ie following today’s match, William McClintock outlined that Ireland’s extensive preparations paid dividends. A key feature of the opening stand between McClintock & Cott was the running between the wickets, “We didn’t really talk about running; we’ve batted a lot of times together now, and we trust each others call.”
On the Ireland game plan, McClintock continued, “We targeted the offside mainly for our boundaries, because if it beat the in-field – it was four. Me and Sonny just said, if it was in our area we would try and punish the bowlers and put pressure on them from the start.”
Today’s win puts Ireland in a strong position heading into tomorrow’s clash with the Netherlands at Les Quennevais, and McClintock is hoping for more of the same, “It was a good start from everyone. Some good bowling from Whitey (Ben White), Gary (McClintock), Flanders (Rory Anders) and (Tom) Stanton; tomorrow hopefully will be the same and hopefully we will get another win.”
That fixture gets underway at 10.30am tomorrow (Sunday) and you can follow all the action live on CricHQ and via Cricket Ireland’s Twitter feed: @Irelandcricket
In today’s other game, Scotland recorded a comprehensive win over the Dutch – see that scorecard here.
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