Such an entertaining innings by Paul Stirling, but he got out when Ireland needed him to stay. Balbirnie is struggling out there and if the remaining Irish batsmen can't score runs quickly, then the match will rapidly drift out of their control. But still, during the initial powerplay, Ireland scored a massive 73 runs in 6 overs. Now they lost another wicket, as Gareth Delany got out trying for a single that was never there. Ireland need to convert their good starts to good finishes. Else they will remain at the second tier test system for infinite amount of time.
Edit: Balbirnie hits 50, after struggling a lot.
225 runs chase will never going to be easy for Ireland. They did play a few very good overs but to keep the pace for full 20 overs is difficult for a small team like Ireland. Now they need almost 12 runs per over for the next 9-10 overs which is quite an impossible task for the Ireland batsmen. Both the openers Paul Stirling and Andy Balbirnie are out and two new batsmen at the crease now make the task more difficult against the Indian bowlers.
Its a big score but they are fighting really hard tho.
They need 34 runs in 14 balls and it's possible in T-20. I felt that they are only relying on sixes, boundaries but not successfully rotating the strike it happened with the Irish openers specially Balbirnie and rest of the batters also doing the same. This is okay in small ground like this one but not successful strategy overall.
29 off 11 now so it's going down the wire.
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Uff so close, hard luck for Irish team and big relief for youngster Malik.