CANADA VS IRELAND: MATCH CENTRE AND SCORECARD

Canada held their nerve with the ball as the Group fixture came down to the final over at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium, beating Ireland by 12 runs to record their first ever ICC T20 World Cup win.

The Canada men’s cricket team only had one previous win over a full member nation to their name (against Ireland in 2019), but were the better team in all three disciplines as they produced another shock result in a group that has thrown up plenty of drama already at this tournament.

Coming a day after their southerly neighbours USA had stunned Pakistan, Canada lent on the brilliance of Nicholas Kirton with the bat to reach 137/7 in their 20 overs – the highest score on this ground in three tournament matches.

And the bowling unit stood up to deny Ireland, taking seven wickets and surviving a late onslaught to take the win.

How Canada completed their New York upset

Canada’s bowlers limited Ireland’s top order superbly in the first half of the innings, denying any of their opponents’ big names from letting loose.

An unusually subdued Paul Stirling was first to fall, caught behind for nine from 17 balls, and the wickets fell at frequent intervals to prevent any significant momentum with the bat for the Irish.

And a calamitous run out to send Lorcan Tucker packing left Ireland in big trouble on 50/4 at the halfway point of the chase, needing a big finish to avoid a World Cup upset.

A dangerous partnership between George Dockrell (30* from 23) and Mark Adair (34 from 24) almost saw Ireland pull off a sensational rescue job.

But Adair fell to the second ball of the final over, and Ireland fell flat as they looked for boundaries at the death, ending 12 runs short to suffer a demoralising defeat that leaves them needing something special to reach the Super 8 phase.

Jeremy Gordon (2/16 from 4) and Dilon Heylinger (2/18 from 4) were the pick of the bowlers, with Junaid Siddiqui and Saad Bin Zafar also amongst the wickets.

Kirton and Movva help Canada to challenging total

Earlier, Ireland won the toss at the venue in Long Island, with captain Paul Stirling opting to bowl first.

And it was Craig Young, coming into the side as an additional seam option, who took two wickets as Ireland kept Canada pegged back through the first half of the innings.

Young and Mark Adair kept things extremely tidy, with Gareth Delany also picking up a wicket with a superb caught-and-bowled to reduce Canada to 53/4.

But Canada were able to find the boundary with regularity, threatening the highest score on a ground where runs have been at a premium.

Nicholas Kirton’s excellent 49 from 35 balls and Shreyas Movva’s 37 from 36 boosted Canada to a competitive total.

Some excellent death bowling from Ireland ensured the required total didn’t get completely out of hand, with Barry McCarthy taking two wickets for two runs in the penultimate over to take the sting out of Canada’s tail. But 137 proved enough in the end for Canada, as they pulled off an historic win.

Canada were beaten by tournament co-hosts USA in the World Cup opener, leaving them still facing an uphill battle to qualify from a group that also contains India and Pakistan, who they play in their two remaining fixtures.

And Ireland were also left disappointed by the nature of their loss to India on Wednesday in New York. Defeat to the world’s top-ranked men’s T20I team was not a shock, but Ireland failed to do themselves justice on the day, and they underperformed again at the same ground against Canada.