In the third Twenty20 cricket international against Bangladesh on Friday, Ireland defeated Bangladesh by seven wickets thanks in large part to captain Paul Stirling’s 77 runs off 41 balls, preventing a series sweep.
After deciding to bat first, Bangladesh was bowled out for 124 in 19.2 overs. Shamim Hossain’s 42-ball 51 helped it come back from 61-7. Nonetheless, Ireland sped to 126-3 in 14 overs, indicating that his effort was insufficient.
With 10 fours and four sixes, Stirling controlled the chase.
The bowlers set up the win, according to Stirling, who added, “We’ll only get better the more games we play.”
Pacer Shoriful Islam, one of the two substitutions for the hosts, had Lorcan Tucker caught by Litton Das for four before the fast bowler Taskin Ahmed got through early by dismissing Ross Adair (7).
Stirling achieved his 22nd T20 fifty off 31 balls, against legspinner Rishad Hossain, who took 1-19 in three debut overs, and those two dismissals couldn’t dampen his spirits.
The sole bowler, Rishad, was able to contain Stirling’s aggressiveness and finally get rid of him for his maiden wicket as Ireland neared its first victory on Bangladeshi territory.
The team was led to victory by Harry Tector (14 not out) and Curtis Campher (16 not out), with the latter pulling Taskin over fine leg for a six.
The valuable wicket of captain Shakib Al Hasan (6), caught at midwicket by a slower ball, was taken by pacer Mark Adair, who ended with 3-25.
He was joined by Campher and Tector, who quickly removed Rony Talukdar (14) and Najmul Hossain Shanto from Bangladesh’s top order (4).
Later, with Bangladesh down to 41-5, legspinner Ben White made a quick turn to defeat Towhid Hridoy (12).
If we want to be a very good side, that’s the way we have to play. May fail in certain games, but it doesn’t matter,” Shakib said. “We didn’t bat well, kept losing wickets, but that occurs with the way we want to play our cricket.”
Shamim fought back, but rookie left-arm spinner Matthew Humphreys (2-10) dealt Bangladesh a twin blow with his first two deliveries, removing Rishad for his first wicket and dismissing Taskin Ahmed for a duck, further complicating matters for Bangladesh.
Legspinner Gareth Delany broke the partnership before Shamim was the last man out, after which Shamim and Nasum Ahmed (13) combined for 33 runs for the ninth wicket.
Bangladesh won games one and two of the series by margins of 22 and 77 runs, respectively.
