Ireland, UAE in opening wins

IRELAND opened their World Cup qualifiers campaign with a 93-run win against Netherlands in a rain-affected all-European clash at Old Hararians Sports Club yesterday.

After a fifty from Andy Balbirnie had anchored Ireland’’s full 50-over innings, Netherlands fell nearly nine overs short of batting 41 overs in their hunt for a revised target of 243.

Seamers Tim Murtagh and Boyd Rankin were Ireland’’s most effective bowlers.

Ireland began with a series of contributions from their top order, most notably a 101-run stand for the fourth wicket between Balbirnie and Niall O’’Brien.

Their partnership followed stands of 59, 35 and 24 respectively for the first three wickets before Netherlands staged a comeback in the slog overs, picking up 4 for 49 in the last 7.2 overs.

Netherlands, however, did not find partnerships from their top order. Inside 16 overs, they’’d lost five wickets and any chance of recovery was regularly thwarted by Ireland’’s bowlers. Timm van der Gugten’’s 33 off 25 at No. 9 was their most significant contribution as they folded for 149.

Across town at Harare Sports Club, United Arab Emirates kicked off their campaign on a very positive note, easing past Papua New Guinea in another rain-hit encounter in the capital.

PNG’s target was revised from 222 to 170 from 28 after a rain break, and they didn’’t get close, folding for 113. Seamer Mohammad Naveed contributed much to this slide, taking career-best ODI figures of 5 for 28.

At one point PNG looked in danger of missing out on triple digits, falling to 70 for 8; none of their top five got past 12, and the innings’’ top score was 24 from number six Charles Amini who was eventually run out.

It was PNG who chose to chase, and UAE looked like there were keen to make them pay for this decision from the outset. Their openers Rohan Mustafa and Ashfaq Ahmed put on 91 at a brisk pace, but none could kick on to big hundreds. PNG enjoyed some relief after Ashfaq fell for 50 off 56, taking two more quick wickets.

The UAE middle order could not quite get going thereafter, and Mustafa was kept in check too - he eventually fell five short of a hundred, having played out 136 balls. PNG must have felt relieved to have only 222 to chase, given UAE’’s start. However, rain and Naveed intervened and spoiled those plans.