Ireland beat UAE by seven wickets in T20 World Cup warm-up game in Dubai
- Published
Paul Stirling brought up his half century with two successive sixes in Dubai after a patient start to his innings
Men's T20 World Cup warm-up game, Dubai |
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United Arab Emirates 123-7 (20 overs): Usman 35; Campher 3-19; White 2-24; Adair 2-29 |
Ireland 124-3 (18.5 overs): Stirling 53, O'Brien 46; Hameed 3-20 |
Ireland won by seven wickets |
A 90-run opening stand by Paul Stirling and Kevin O'Brien helped Ireland defeat the United Arab Emirates by seven wickets in Thursday's Twenty20 match.
Curtis Campher took three wickets in a disciplined Irish bowling display that restricted the hosts to 123-7 in Dubai.
Stirling hit 53 with O'Brien contributing 46 as Ireland reached their target with seven balls to spare.
It was the first of a three-match series between the sides before the T20 World Cup starts later this month.
With the Irish having lost to Scotland in their opening non-cap warm-up game on Tuesday, all-rounder Campher took his first international T20 wicket to dismiss Chirag Suri and then caught-and-bowled CP Rizwan to help reduce the hosts to 26-3.
A top-edged pull from Basil Hameed to Josh Little at short fine leg gave Campher his third wicket and while Muhammad Usman offered some resistance with a 32-ball 35, he was then dismissed by leg-spinner Ben White, who immediately bowled Rohan Mustafa for a first-ball duck.
White, with 2-24, and Adair, with 2-29, finished with tidy figures as UAE's total looked well below par.
In Ireland's reply, Stirling was patient as he took 40 balls to reach 38 before successive sixes off spinner Mustafa saw him get to his half century.
The recent star of The Hundred final was dismissed by Hameed after reaching 53 and while captain Andrew Balbirnie quickly departed for three, with O'Brien also holing out to give Hameed his third wicket, Campher and Gareth Delany guided the Irish to the paltry target.
The sides meet again on Friday before Sunday's final match in the series.
"It's always good to win the first international on tour and hopefully we can back it up tomorrow," said Balbirnie, after a game played in extremely hot conditions.
"Most pleasing today was the well-controlled bowling performance put in by our bowling unit - it was very accurate in skills execution and they delivered on the plans we had in place."
The Irish start their T20 World Cup campaign against the Netherlands in Abu Dhabi on 18 October.