Defending World Cup champions England defeated the visitors Ireland by six wickets in the first One Day International match on Thursday.
England last played the white-ball cricket back in February this year and after a hiatus of over five months due to coronavirus, the three-headed lions marked their amazing comeback in the limited-overs cricket.
England was already without six of its players who were a part of the World Cup-winning team, including the all-rounder Ben Stokes and wicketkeeper Jos Buttler who played a crucial role in the side’s triumph last year.
In the first match at Southampton, England won the toss and chose to bowl as they put Ireland to bat first. This was England’s first ODI match at home after winning the World Cup 2019.
Ireland’s innings started off on a disappointing note as they lost the opener, Paul Stirling (2) and Gareth Delany (22 runs) within first three overs of the match. Soon Ireland started struggling as their innings faltered to 28/5. All-rounder Kevin O Brien tried providing resistance to the innings as he looked to build a partnership.
No Ireland batsman was able to perform well as pacer David Willey wreaked havoc with his unplayable deliveries. The pacer finished with the figures of 5/30 in his spell of 8.4 overs.
Billings and Morgs guide us home!
We take a 1-0 series lead 👏#ENGvIRE Scorecard/clips: https://t.co/x4b6tcc2dn pic.twitter.com/mABrpOkyPX
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) July 30, 2020
The only positive about Ireland’s innings was debutant Curtis Campher’s innings. He scored 59 runs as he stitched 66 runs partnership with Andy McBrine (40) and took the side’s total to 172 runs.
Campher was already touted as one the game-changers when he was selected in the ODI squad for the series.
England started the chase with Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow opening the innings for the side. They lost their first wicket in the third over as Andy McBrine removed Bairstow (2 runs) with an LBW appeal. James Vince (25 runs) came in to bat and the duo tried building a partnership but failed after a 24 runs stand. Jason Roy was given out on an LBW appeal by Craig Young.
All-rounder Sam Billings and skipper Eoin Morgan combined together to take the side to 174 runs and also take a 1-0 lead over the visitors. Billings scored 67 runs as he stitched a 96-run partnership with Morgan (36 runs).
Pacer David Willey was adjudged the Man of the Match for his match-winning spell and a fifer. Both the teams will now face each other on August 1 in the second ODI game at the Southampton i.e., Sunday.
