England defeat Ireland by 4 wickets in one-off ODI
England defeated Ireland by 4 wickets in the one-off one-day international played at Dublin on Friday.
In a rain-curtailed match reduced to 45 overs a side, England captain Eoin Morgan won the toss and decided to field first. Ireland openers William Porterfield and Paul Stirling got the team off to a decent start, adding 55 runs for the opening wicket in 11.4 overs.
Tom Curran dismissed the dangerous Stirling for 33. The England bowlers then staged a good comeback, running through the Ireland middle order to reduce them to 111 for 6.
Mark Adair and George Dockrell steadied the Ireland innings a little with a 46-run stand for the 7th wicket. Jofra Archer then got his maiden ODI wicket for England by dismissing Adair for 32.
England ended the innings on a high, bowling out Ireland for 198 in 43.1 overs. Tom Curran took 3 wickets for the visitors while Liam Plunkett took 4 wickets. Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid and Joe Denly took 1 wicket each.
Chasing the target of 199 runs, James Vince and Dawid Malan got off to a steady start and added 34 runs for opening wicket. Josh Little then got the wickets of Vince, Malan and Morgan to send some shivers down the visitors' spines.
England were soon reduced to 66 for 5, but David Willey and Ben Foakes brought some measure of control by adding 35 runs for the 6th wicket. Little dismissed Willey for 20.
Foakes and Tom Curran then took charge for England, taking singles and hitting occasional boundaries. Foakes reached his fifty off 70 balls.
Playing his first ODI match, Foakes held his nerve at the end and saw the team through to the finish line. He added an unbeaten 98 runs for the 7th wicket with Curran, and England won the match by 4 wickets with 18 balls to spare.
Brief scores: England 199 for 6 in 42 overs (Ben Foakes 61*, Tom Curran 47*, Josh Little 4/45) beat Ireland 198 in 43.1 overs (Paul Stirling 33, Mark Adair 32, Liam Plunkett 4/35, Tom Curran 3/35) by 4 wickets.