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That is all that was written for this contest with Ireland cantering to a handsome win. The action rolls on though as Sri Lanka take the field in about 40 minutes from now as they lock horns with Namibia in the second contest of Group A here at the Zayed Stadium so do ensure to switch tabs to follow our coverage of that, as well as the warm up encounter between India and England at the ICC Academy Ground in Dubai. Thank you so much for tuning into Sportskeeda's coverage of this contest - one which we hope you enjoyed as much as we did bringing it to you. On behalf of my good friend and fellow textpert Pradeep Somashekar, this is Sooryanarayanan Sesha once again reminding you to mask up and get yourselves vaccinated in case you haven't already. Goodbye and take care!
Quite a dominant display that from Ireland and wins don't get better than that as far as opening games in a marquee event go. Andy Balbirnie has every reason to be a happy skipper at the end of this contest and it sets it up perfectly for his side to carry forward and make the most of the remaining two games in their group as well. As for Netherlands, the games coming thick and fast could well be a blessing in disguise for the side as they won't have much time to dwell on this game as skipper Pieter Seelaar mentioned. They will have to brush this under the carpet while taking the important learnings out of it before their next fixture against Namibia at this very venue.
Andy Balbirnie (Ireland Captain): Feels really good - over the last few years the Dutch have done better against us in T20 cricket. When you lose the toss and are asked to bowl, to put in that kind of performance was good. (On the plans with the ball) Just the accuracy - the wicket was slow so we tried to attack the stumps as much as possible. Curtis did really well to back it up. I think we did well at the end of it so it was a brilliant sight. I usually discuss it (the reviews) with the keeper. We got a couple of them going our way today but it doesn't always happen. Paul just set up shop and saw us home with the bat, Gareth played the way we wanted him to and Kevin went hard up top. Very happy with the win.
Pieter Seelaar (Netherlands Captain): Obviously it wasn't the best Powerplay. The wicket was flat from ball one but one freak over changed the whole game around. Not saying we were on top before that but that completely made it a long shot. We didn't have enough on the board but we showed good fight in the second innings. Some balls did keep low but 106 wasn't enough. If we would have got to 150-160 we could have made a game of it. We cannot dwell on this too much - I've said it before that winning three games isn't easy. We will have to come back stronger.
Curtis Campher (Player of the Match): I knew there was glove on it (the first dismissal). I heard a sound and he played away from his body so I was happy there. I knew that the hat-trick delivery was definitely hitting the leg-stump so I told Balbirnie to go for it. I just wanted to bang it into the wicket and hit the hard lengths. The skipper kept a lot of faith in me and backed me. We've been working on bowling our yorkers as well. It was a good day and to knock off those six or seven runs myself towards the end was very nice.
For the heartbreak of 2014, Ireland have pulled one back in their favor today to soothe those wounds to a good extent. What a start they have made to their campaign with the win orchestrated by their bowling attack led by a whirlwind spell by Curtis Campher and an impeccable show on the part of Mark Adair.
Setting out in quest of 107, Ireland were handed a few free runs in the form of extras by Fred Klaassen in the opening over but even as Kevin O'Brien cut loose from the word go, he was prized out by Brandon Glover for a score of 9. With skipper Andy Balbirnie departing soon after scoring a couple of boundaries, it just seemed as though the contest was still on, particularly with Paul Stirling looking scratchy at the other end.
Gareth Delany joined Stirling and after a few quiet overs, the former teed off with some extravagant shots to all but deem the end result a foregone conclusion. He continued to reel off the odd boundary at regular intervals to ensure that Ireland would do the job in a canter. A couple of instances of sloppy fielding on the part of the Dutch didn't help their cause one bit as they were just going through the motions beyond a stage.
Delany did fall as he yorked himself off the bowling of skipper Seelaar but if anything, that seemed like a conspiracy on the part of the universe to get the hero of the day, Curtis Campher in to seal the deal for his side. And fittingly enough, it was Campher who nurdled the ball around the corner to seal victory for his side. Just not the day though for Netherlands.
That said, some of their bowlers did bowl fairly well with Pieter Seelaar, Fred Klaassen and Brandon Glover accounting for a wicket apiece. Klaassen did well to recover after a modest opening over and Logan van Beek sent down a good spell of his own. At the end of the day, the bowlers just didn't have enough runs on the board to play with though.
There you go! That is as clinical a performance as it can get to kickstart your campaign and boy, haven't the Irish turned the heat on in their opening encounter. Curtis Campher, the star of the show, finishes the game with the winning run as Ireland beat Netherlands by 7 wickets with 29 deliveries to spare. This is their first win over Netherlands in Men's T20 World Cup history!
16.0
15.1 Pieter Seelaar to Curtis Campher, THAT'S IT! Campher hits the winning runs for Ireland and that's one done in this Round 1! Full delivery into Campher on the leg-stump as he gets behind and works it uppishly over square-leg for a single. Ireland finish a comprehensive victory here and the Netherlands have a lot to ponder from here on!
Pieter Seelaar is back into the attack. He will bowl around the wicket.
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Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi
