India won the toss in their opening T20 World Cup match and put Ireland in to bat first. With the conditions overcast, both sides anticipated swing initially but the pitch and outfield at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York surprised the players as well as the fans.
India struck early in the third over as Arshdeep Singh sent opposition captain Paul Stirling back to the hut who miscued a pull shot straight up in the air. Rishabh Pant, playing his first match in Indian colours after 17 months, pouched the difficult catch without any fuss.
Prior to Stirling’s dismissal, the ball had taken off after pitching on length on multiple occasions – sowing seeds of doubts in the batter’s minds.
Notably, in the previous match between South Africa and Sri Lanka, similar grievances were made by both teams as the uneven bounce did not allow for a fair competition between the bat and ball.
Since the Nassau County Stadium was developed from scratch in the last few months, drop-in pitches that were prepared in Australia and later curated in Florida have been used for the two matches. The outfield has also been laid down artificially which means the ball cannot zip through the surface when the batter times it.
Consequently, India managed to skittle off Ireland on the paltry total of 96 in only 16 overs. Only four batters were able to get into double figures as Indian bowlers dominated the proceedings.
Teams:
India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma(c), Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant(w), Suryakumar Yadav, Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj
Ireland (Playing XI): Paul Stirling(c), Andrew Balbirnie, Lorcan Tucker(w), Harry Tector, Curtis Campher, George Dockrell, Gareth Delany, Mark Adair, Barry McCarthy, Joshua Little, Benjamin White
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