New Delhi. In the 20th match of the World Cup Qualifiers 2023, the Ireland cricket team has defeated the UAE cricket team by 138 runs. In the match played at Bulawayo Athletic Club, Ireland scored 349 runs losing 4 wickets while batting first. Paul Stirling scored a big century (162) from the Irish team. Chasing a mammoth target in reply, the UAE team could manage only 211 runs losing all the wickets.
After Ireland’s first wicket fell for 41 runs, Stirling scored a century and shared a 184-run partnership for the second wicket with half-century captain Balbirnie (66). Apart from these, Harry Tector (57) took the team to a big score by scoring a half-century. Chasing the target, UAE lost 6 wickets for 129 runs at one stage. Sanchit Sharma (44) played a fighting innings in difficult times, but could not win.
Sterling scored 162 runs in 134 balls. He hit 15 fours and 8 sixes in his century innings. Stirling is Ireland’s leading run-scorer in the ODI format. He has scored 5,525 runs in 152 ODIs at an average of 38.36. Apart from 14 centuries in ODIs, he has also scored 27 fifties. This was his second 150 plus score.
Ireland captain Balbirnie hit a brilliant half-century. This was the 15th half-century of his ODI career. He faced 88 balls and scored 66 runs, which included 5 fours and 1 six. In his ODI career, Balbirnie has scored 2,861 runs in 98 matches at an average of 31.79 and a strike rate of 74.97. During this, 8 centuries have also come out of his bat.
Ireland’s Tector scored his 9th half-century of his ODI career. He scored an innings of 57 runs in 33 balls, which included 4 fours and 2 sixes. He shared a 57-run partnership for the third wicket with Sterling. He has now scored 1,371 runs in 35 ODIs at an average of 50.78 and a strike rate of 82.49. During this, he has scored 4 centuries with the highest score of 140 runs.
Playing under the captaincy of Balbirnie, Ireland have won their first match of the ongoing World Cup qualifiers. Earlier they had to face defeat against Oman, Scotland and Sri Lanka. The Irish team finished fourth and were already out of the Super-6 race.
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