Wolves bite back following heavy reversal at hands of Bangladesh ‘A’

IRELAND Wolves bounced back from the disappointment of their heavy defeat by Bangladesh A on Friday to square the five-match 50-over series with two to play.

It was the established names who came to the party to haul the Wolves over the line with Stuart Thompson and Andy McBrine each scoring half centuries and then McBrine, Tyrone Kane and Barry McCarthy shared the 10 wickets as the tourists were bowled out 34 runs short of the Wolves’ 245.

James Shannon and Harry Tector failed to score as the Wolves found themselves 9-2 in the fifth over, but after the loss of skipper Andrew Balbirnie, a stand of 103 between Thompson and McBrine put their team back in control.

Shane Getkate hit a run-a-ball 28 and Graham Kennedy and JJ Garth faced just 27 balls between them as the Wolves just failed to bat out the overs.

The home side went into the game without both Peter Chase and David Delany and opened the bowling with McBrine. But the North West Warriors captain responded superbly and after McCarthy had made the early breakthrough, he took the next three wickets to reduce Bangladesh to 117-4.

Kane then picked up the baton with two wickets in two balls and added two more before McCarthy, playing his last game before returning to Durham, made sure of victory with the last two wickets.

The next game is at The Hills on Wednesday.