Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
IRELAND GO STIR CRAZY
PAUL STIRLING and Andrew Balbirnie starred as 329 again proved to be the magic number for Ireland. The men in green claimed only a second win over England after overcoming the world champions in a final over thriller.
Set an identical score to the one they finished on to famously beat England at the 2011 World Cup, a 214-run stand between Belfastman Stirling and captain Balbirnie laid the foundations.
And Kevin O’brien - the hero of Bangalore - fittingly got them over the line from the penultimate ball.
SPLASHDOWNS, after orbit on cloud nine, are not supposed to be so traumatic.
But as Paul Stirling and Andrew Balbirnie’s brilliant twin hundreds catapulted Ireland to a historic first win on English soil, Eoin Morgan’s World Cup holders suffered an agonising crash landing at the Ageas Bowl.
Chasing 329 to win, the Irish squeezed home by seven wickets with a ball to spare.
England won the Royal London series 2-1, but were brutalised by Belfast-born opener Stirling and Ireland captain Balbirnie’s 214-run partnership. Injured England skipper Morgan, who thrashed a 78-ball century, could only watch helplessly from the dressing room as his attack was brought down to earth.
His deputy Moeen Ali, taking charge for the first time, was powerless to stop Stirling (142) and Balbirnie (113) unleashing their memorable onslaught.
England were by no means at full strength, but even in the absence of Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler, should have had enough firepower to smoke out emerging Test nations at home.
Instead, on an easy-paced pitch, there were echoes of Ireland’s World Cup win in Bengaluru nine years ago, when Kevin O’brien played the innings of his life as they chased down 328 to win
Here, the target was one run more – and England’s attack was too anaemic to turn back the green tide when Stirling stepped on the gas.
Morgan’s 15th ODI hundred came in a 146-run stand with Tom Banton (58). He strode to the middle at 14-2 after openers Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow fell cheaply and hit four sixes and 14 boundaries, but could not field because of a groin problem.
Morgan’s dismissal triggered a mid-innings slump from 190-3 to 216-7, before David Willey added 51 from 42 balls.
But when Stirling – who also played in that upset in 2011 – produced his thrilling response, the asking rate of 6.58 runs an over looked tame.
“It was brilliant to get our first win in the competition. We showed a lot of character to come back and are just delighted to get the win,” Stirling said.
“We’ve chased over 300 a number of times, particularly in World Cups, so we knew we could do it. It maybe just freed us up a little bit to go a bit harder up top and have a bit of fun.
“In the middle overs we were able to keep it ticking along, so it was just a pretty solid chase in the end.”