September 9, 2010

Ireland vs Canada

Ireland and Canada played their second ODI Cricket match yesterday at Cricket Skating and Curling Club, Toronto. Canada won the toss and elected to field first.

Ireland opened its batting innings with the openers Paul Stirling and Andre Botha. They both started well and put up a partnership of 91 runs before the fall of first wicket. Paul Stirling right from the start of the innings played aggressively. Other top order batsmen contributed some runs to the team and also gave a good partnership to Paul Stirling. Paul Stirling scored his century and later added another half century into his records and finally scored his highest score of his ODI career. He got out by giving a simple catch in the Harvir Baidwan's delivery in the 44.5 over. Paul Stirling scored a magnificent 177 runs in just 134 deliveries which included 21 fours and 5 sixes with a strike rate of over 132.09. By 50 overs, Ireland lost 8 wickets and put up a total score of 325 runs on board. Harvir Baidwan and Harvir Baidwan picked up 3 wickets each for Canada.

Canada needed 326 runs to win the match in 50 overs with 10 wickets in hand. This was suppose to be a tough target as the team is considered. Hiral Patel and Nitesh Kumar opened the batting innings for Canada. Hiral Patel got out when Canada reached 10 runs in total. Nitesh Kumar also did not last long at the crease as he departed by giving a straight catch to John Mooney. There came a partnership of 69 runs and another partnership of 49 runs which added some runs to the team. But Canada lost all its 10 wickets as they were loosing wickets in regular fashion. By 46.3 overs, Canada lost 10 wickets and made a total score of 233 runs. Albert van der Merwe bowled brilliantly well and picked up 5 wickets. Ireland won the match by 92 runs.

Man of the match was Paul Stirling for his magnificent performance with the bat.

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