OPINION
Follow UsIn the end, it turned out to be a regulation win for team India. They cruised towards the target of 109, getting home with 16 balls to spare, and lived up to the pre-game tag of being overwhelming favorites.
On Sunday, Dublin did not provide ideal T20 conditions but the crowds still ended up getting their money’s worth. In a rain-curtailed encounter that lasted all of 21 overs, the two sides somehow managed to pack-in three and a half hours of entertainment courtesy some sweet hitting from the batters, who made fullest use of the ground dimensions at The Village.
A night to remember for Harry Tector
Should it not have been for Harry Tector, Sunday’s encounter at The Village would have easily been one of the most one-sided, unremarkable, unmemorable international games of the year. At 22/3 in cloudy conditions, India were all over Ireland and at this point, the encounter was lifeless. Even the prospect of rain making a reappearance and finishing the match off, for good, seemed appealing.
But perhaps the weather gods knew a thing or two. Perhaps they purposely stayed away to let everyone enjoy the batting exhibition that was Tector’s 64*.
It took Tector 9 balls to find the boundary rope for the first time. But once he did, there was no looking back. The next 24 balls of his innings featured 5 more fours and 3 sixes, and so good were some of the strokes that it had the most ardent of Indian fans cheering the youngster on.
Heck, it even had the Indian skipper drooling.
“Some of the shots Harry played had me in awe,” said Pandya post the game.
Usually in a T20 dash, you’ll have batters scoring close to 60-65% of their runs through the on-side, the mid-wicket and cow-corner regions proving to be the most productive. The beauty of Tector’s knock on Sunday was that a remarkable 42 of the 64 runs he scored came on the off-side, with cover proving to be his favorite region.
He began his innings by dispatching Axar Patel for a pair of boundaries through the off-side, and that ended up foreshadowing what followed: of the eight boundaries he hit on the night, five — including two sixes — came in the zone between cover and extra cover.
It was a knock that deserved to end up on the winning side but that’s alright. Now the world knows who Harry Tector is.
Bhuvneshwar, Chahal stand-out in ordinary bowling day for the visitors
After winning the toss and bowling first, team India sure would not have expected conceding 108 inside 12 overs, especially after reducing the hosts to 22/3 inside the powerplay (4 overs), removing all the major threats in Stirling, Balbirnie and Delany. But it happened anyway.
That was because they had as many as four bowlers misfire on the night. Hardik Pandya, Avesh Khan, Axar Patel and Umran Malik all went at over 11 an over, and the quartet’s loose showing ensured that Ireland got to a total that was certainly par.
There was uncontrollable buzz the moment news broke out that Umran Malik was making his international debut but on the day, the tearaway bowled a pretty nervy six balls. He attempted the glory ball — straight, pacy yorker — one too many times and paid the price after failing to get the radar right. Young Harry Tector manhandled him by smashing a four and a six as his only over in the game went for 18.
Axar Patel, too, was taken apart by Tector while skipper Pandya, despite getting the big wicket of Paul Stirling, bowled an ordinary 2 overs as he was whacked for 26. Pandya might have enjoyed an outstanding IPL with the ball, but his last 7 overs in Indian colours have now traveled for 87 runs.
Avesh Khan began well by removing Delany in his first over but he, too, lost the plot at the very end, his attempted yorkers all turning into juicy full-tosses for Tector to dispatch.
That Ireland did not end up posting an above-par total was fully down to India’s veterans, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Yuzvendra Chahal, stepping up.
Taking the new-ball in tailor-made conditions, Bhuvneshwar picked up from where he left against South Africa. It took him only five balls to strike — an inswinger castling Balbirnie — and he exited the powerplay with figures of 2-1-2-1, once again setting up the game for the rest of the bowlers.
To Bhuvneshwar’s dismay his terrific new-ball burst ended up getting nullified, but Chahal’s masterful spell in the middle ensured that it, at least, did not come in a losing cause.
The leggie conceded just 11 off his 3 overs, while accounting for the wicket of Lorcan Tucker, and got through his spell without conceding a single boundary. This despite him bowling the penultimate over of the innings against a set Tector. Quite a remarkable achievement on an extremely small Malahide ground.
The two veterans stepped up but come the second T20I, India would be hoping for the bowling unit to fire collectively.
