Ireland vs India, 1st T20I - Commentary

Ireland vs India, 1st T20I - Live Cricket Score, Commentary

IND 208/5 (20.0 Ovs)

IRE 132/9 (20.0 Ovs)

India won by 76 runs

PLAYER OF THE MATCH
Kuldeep Yadav

Hitman and Gabbar killed the match in the first passage of play and then Kuldeep and Chahal portrayed their sorcery to complete the inevitable for Ireland. Hopefully, Ireland will be more competitive in the next match. See you on Friday. Until then, this is Varun Dixit signing off on behalf of Rishi Roy, Sagar Chawla, Ramakrishnan and Mukesh. Good bye and take good care of yourselves.

Eshan says: "Team India did not need services of KL and DK." - Virat has clarified in the post-match presentation that they will get a go in the 2nd T20I.

Virat Kohli: I can't complain about anything today. Opening combination was excellent. The last over bowled by Ireland was terrific. Great effort by Rohit and Shikhar to put us in a good position. And good strikes from MS, Raina and Pandya in the end. Bowlers did a clinical job too. We have already announced that apart from the opening combination we are going to do a lot of experiments in the middle order. We are going to be flexible in the next few T20s. We will look to throw in guys when the situation requires them to come in and try to surprise the opposition. It presents the opportunity for the batsmen who couldn't get the opportunity to bat. The guys who couldn't get a chance today will get an opportunity in the next match. The guys had a great time in IPL but they need to get time in the middle here too. The team management decided to give a go to everyone in the squad. The guys are fine with this decision. We are looking to give everyone game-time and want them to portray the qualities they possess because many guys go on tour and never get an opportunity to play.

Kuldeep Yadav, Man of the match: This is my first trip to the UK and it has started well. I think the wicket was good to bat on and it was turning a little bit but wristspinners exploit even that little bit of turn in the wicket. We bowled variations and tried to bowl in the right areas. We talk a lot during the games when we bowl. First Chahal bowled and he told me that pitch is little slow. England are playing good cricket but if we use variations nicely it will be difficult for England too.

Gary Wilson: They are a world-class side and their lads at the top played beautifully. I expected it to be a good wicket, I did not expect it to spin as it did in the second innings. We could have bowled spinners in the powerplay. You can always do things differently when things don't go your way. Simi had a very good tour of Netherland so we pushed him up the order. We are going to have a chat to tackle their spinners. Shannon had a good match so that is one positive we can take from this match.

19:14 Local Time, 18:14 GMT, 23:44 IST: The chase was never really on once India ran away to a total of 208. Ireland opener James Shannon rode his luck for his maiden T20I fifty, off 29 balls, but the hosts never kept up with the required rate which climbed to a daunting 14rpo as early as the halfway mark. And once the Indian wristspinners took control, the hosts had no answers. With the batsmen needing to go after them, Kuldeep and Chahal slipped in their variations to wreck havoc through the middle. It was India's opening partnership with the bat of course which knocked the stuffing out of Ireland. Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan's massive 160-run stand put any semblance of a contest out of the window. It will take some doing for Ireland to bounce back from this pasting. Time for the presentation.