Rashid spins Ireland into submission
England race to win without IPL big guns
EnGLAnd did not need their Indian Premier League superstars to make short work of Ireland as their busiest ever year began with an earlyseason stroll in Bristol.
The absence of Ben stokes, Jos Buttler and Chris Woakes, who were allowed to remain in India instead of playing in two internationals, was barely felt as England raced to a seven-wicket victory that was all over on the stroke of a delayed lunch.
Perhaps the management — and a disappointingly small crowd of 6,411 — knew England would not need to be at their best to defeat an Ireland side in decline at the worst possible time for them.
Ireland are on the brink of gaining Test status, but they are an ageing side now usurped by Afghanistan as the best of the ‘associate’ nations and never looked likely to repeat their famous win against England in the 2011 World Cup.
seven members of the Irish side remain from that heady night in Bangalore. However, they were up against a very different England one- day team here to the one who had repeatedly struggled to keep pace with the very best white-ball outfits.
England sprang something of a surprise in leaving out Moeen Ali and preferring Adil Rashid as their sole spinner but it was the leg-spinner who proved the unlikely destroyer. Ireland’s experienced batting line-up could not pick Rashid’s variations, particularly his preferred googly, and he raced to his first five-wicket haul in one-day international cricket with ease.
Rashid had a mixed winter, even though he ended up with 22 Test wickets against India, but here he was again a potent one-day force in English conditions and, crucially, delivered very few bad balls.
‘ It was Adil’s day today,’ purred England captain Eoin Morgan. ‘ We picked him because we thought he would be a bigger threat than Moeen on this wicket and I thought he put in a magnificent effort with the ball.
‘He had a tough winter but I think he’s learnt a huge amount and it took a lot of confidence to come here today and use all his variations. He showed how threatening he can be.’
Ireland made a decent enough start on a blameless Bristol pitch and moved comfortably to 40 without loss as Mark Wood and david Willey eased their way back into the rigours of international cricket after injury. But once Wood, back in England colours after a third operation on his left ankle, had burst through Paul stirling’s defences with a delivery measured at 89mph, Ireland imploded against spin.
‘I thought he bowled well,’ said Morgan of the returning Wood. ‘We have to manage the expectations of him coming straight back in and bowling 95mph because he can’t just do that.
‘It’s important he builds up to the stage where he feels like he’s bowling well and today we saw glimpses of that.’ The last
eight Irish wickets crashed for 45 runs, five of them falling to Rashid for 27 and Joe Root taking advantage of the absence of Moeen’s off- spin with two victims of his own at a personal cost of just nine from five overs.
‘It was up there,’ said Rashid when asked if that was one of his best performances for England. ‘Now I want to carry it on. I look to improve every day and some days the ball just comes out better than others,’ he added.
Ireland were hustled out for just 126 in 33 overs with England doing everything they had to do, including an exemplary display behind the stumps by Sam Billings after he was preferred to Test wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow.
It hardly got better in the field for Ireland, with their day to forget being complete when they twice dropped Alex Hales after dismissing his fellow opener Jason Roy.
Hales rode his luck before Ireland finally got their man for 55 and one- day captain Morgan fell with the winning post in sight as Peter Chase claimed his third wicket, but that was as good as it got for the visitors.
The end came, with Root unbeaten on 49, in the third of the extra four overs allowed after the scheduled interval time to finish the match, thankfully sparing cricket the potential farce of a 45-minute lunch interval with only a couple of runs needed.
It was a low-key start to Ireland’s historic visit which will see them play England at Lord’s tomorrow for the first time. But it was a satisfactory start to the preparations of Morgan’s side for next month’s Champions Trophy. England are prioritising white- ball cricket like never before and would dearly love to win their first global 50- over tournament, just as much as the 14 Tests that follow, including the Ashes, in the nine months that follow it.
‘You take the game for what it is,’ said Morgan of a less than challenging day.
‘We always focus on what we do rather than the opposition and I couldn’t ask any more from the boys today.’