India vs Ireland, T20 World Cup: Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah shine as Ireland bowled out for 96

Ireland were dismissed for a total of 96 in their 2024 T20 World Cup opener against India in New York on Wednesday. Having been asked to bat first, Ireland struggled at the Nassau County International Stadium, with Gareth Delaney (26) being the top-scorer.

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Hardik Pandya, with figures of 3/27, was the pick of the bowlers whereas Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah also proved economical.

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Ireland were in trouble very early on in the contest. Skipper Paul Stirling was the first to go after he looked to play the slog across the line, but ended up getting a thick edge towards the wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant. Arshdeep struck again a few deliveries later, cleaning up Andy Balbirnie with a length ball. At the end of powerplay, Ireland could only manage 26/2 with India’s bowlers in full control.

Earlier, Rohit Sharma won the toss and said that India would field first. The Men in Blue went with four seamers and two spinners, leaving Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal. Yashasvi Jaiswal and Sanju Samson were the others omitted from the playing XI.

Most of Arshdeep’s deliveries were pitched up and reared up from length making life miserable for the seasoned duo of Paul Stirling and Andrew Balbirnie.

It only helped that Mohammed Siraj also kept up the relentless pressure from the other end as the two openers found it difficult to even put bat on balls that were jagging around allowing Rishabh Pant to dive full stretch on both sides of the track.

Stirling tried to pull one which climbed up on him from good length and Pant ran backwards to pouch the skier.

For Balbirnie, his ’one-leg’ stance turned out to be a wrong strategy to counter Arshdeep as he bowled one that was pitched on middle and moved a shade towards off with the batter with no footwork unable to cover the line of the swing.

Pandya as the second change pacer bowled a perfect nip-backer with a wobbly seam to breach through Lorcan Tucker’s defence.

Bumrah then scarred an already rattled Harry Tector with a nasty bouncer that took his gloves and almost blew away his head lobbing off the helmet.

At the halfway stage, Ireland, who recently beat Pakistan in a T20I at home, were 49 for 6 and the match had already becoming lopsided.

The biggest gain from the game was Pandya bowling his full quota of overs and the lengths that he hit during his spell which will give his skipper a chance to play an extra batter or bowler as per the demands of the conditions in coming games.

His three dismissals were different deliveries — first one was swing, the second seam and the third extra bounce.

Brief scores: Ireland 96 all out (Gareth Delaney 26; Jasprit Bumrah 2/6, Hardik Pandya 3/27) vs India.

With PTI inputs