England vs Ireland 2019: Honours even on Day 2 of one-off Test
It was an exciting day of cricket between Ireland and England in the one-off Test played at Lords, London on Thursday.
Starting at the overnight score of 0 for 0, Rory Burns and Jack Leach got off to a steady start, adding 26 runs for opening wicket. Boyd Rankin got the breakthrough, dismissing Burns for 6.
Jason Roy then came to the crease and looked uncertain at the start before opening up his shoulders. The nightwatchman Leach on his part showed great temperament and made the most of the conditions.
Leach reached his fifty off 82 balls while Roy completed his half-century off just 47 balls. England went into lunch at the score of 122 for 1.
After the lunch break, Roy and Leach continued their attacking approach and made batting look easy. But just when things started looking dangerous for Ireland, Stuart Thompson dismissed Roy for 72. Roy and Leach had added 145 runs for the 2nd wicket. A
fter the fall of Roy’s wicket, Ireland's bowlers made a strong comeback as they took the wickets of Leach, Joe Denly and Jonny Bairstow in quick succession. That put England under pressure, and they went into the tea break at 209 for 5.
Rankin struck immediately after the break to dismiss Moeen Ali for 9. It was a brilliant bowling display by the Irish bowlers as Mark Adair then dismissed England captain Joe Root.
Adair also got the wicket of Chris Woakes to put the hosts on the backfoot. But Sam Curran played a quick-fire knock, scoring 37 off 29 balls and adding 45 runs for 9th wicket.
Stuart Broad also showed his class with some attacking stroke play to help the hosts go past 300. When the scorecard read 303 for 9 the rain arrived, and the day had to be called off - with England leading by 181 runs with 1 wicket win to spare.
Brief scores: England 303 for 9 in 77.4 overs (Jack Leach 92, Jason Roy 72, Mark Adair 3/66, Stuart Thompson 2/44) and 85 in 23.4 overs (Joe Denly 23, Olly Stone 19, Tim Murtagh 5/13, Mark Adair 3/32) lead Ireland 207 in 58.2 overs (Andy Balbirnie 55, Paul Stirling 36, Sam Curran 3/28, Olly Stone 3/29) by 181 runs.