England denies Ireland famous victory

England defeated Ireland in a close finish by three runs (Duckworth Lewis method) in the only ODI played between the sides at Stormont on Thursday.

Winning the toss, England elected to bat and posted 203-9 in its allotted 50 overs with Joe Denly, in his first appearance for his team, top scoring with his patient 67 in 111 balls.

Medium pacer Trent Johnston, in his 100th appearance for Ireland, was the pick of the bowlers as he dismissed the English top-order early on with his figures of 4-26.

Rain stopped play in the second innings and a three-hour delay reduced the Ireland innings to the minimum 20 overs with a victory target score of 116.

The home side was 64-2 in the ninth over and Paul Stirling contributed valuable runs with his 30 in 26 balls and Andre Botha (15) scored comfortably at a run-a-ball. Later, Man of the Match Johnston looked all set to achieve the winning target scoring an unbeaten 20 runs off 15 balls but a tight bowling display from Owais Shah (3-15) helped England restricted the Irish score to 112-9.