Mooney offers cutting edge in Namibia victory

JOHN MOONEY showed Ireland what they had been missing in last month’s defeats to Scotland when he produced a dominant display in Ireland’s winning start to the World Twenty20 qualifiers. Namibia scored 124 for eight on a slow Stormont pitch with the returning Mooney, in his 50th T20 international, taking the first three wickets. Captain William Porterfield, with 56 not out, then saw Ireland to a seven wickets victory with 16 balls to spare. ‘They have beaten us before [three years ago in this competition], so it was important to get the win,’ said Mooney (above). ‘I made a good start but Alex Cusack also started well.’ In a surprise move, Porterfield surrendered his opening batting position to Niall O’Brien but that worked as well with the Leicestershire professional scoring 45 from just 40 balls. ‘It was a great move to open the batting with Nobby. People might say we lack of bit of experience after the retirement of Ed Joyce but the captain comes in at No 3 and he’s class,’ added Mooney. For the first time in three years, Porterfield used only five bowlers in a T20 innings, and apart from a nervous Kane, who never found a consistent line or length, Ireland were always in control, with 32 the highest partnership. Paul Stirling actually started with a maiden and George Dockrell and Alex Cusack each took two wickets. A target of 125 was never a challenge for this batting line-up and even with Stirling and Kevin O’Brien scoring only four runs between them, it proved a stroll in the sun. They will be confident of doing the same, against the United States, back at Stormont tomorrow.