Ireland fight back to beat USA by nine runs and draw T20I series

Lorcan Tucker top scored for Ireland with 84 runs

Lorcan Tucker and Curtis Campher shone as Ireland recovered from Wednesday's bruising defeat to edge past the United States by nine runs and draw their Twenty20 series in Florida 1-1.

Ireland were all out for 150, as Tucker scored 84 after being dropped twice.

The Americans started solidly in reply, recovering from the unfortunate run-out of opener Ryan Scott to reach 34-1 from the first six overs - but ended just short on 141-7.

Campher took four wickets for 25 runs.

The hosts had created history by beating a Test-playing nation for the first time in the opening match between the sides, triumphing by 26 runs.

And Monank Patel's men had Ireland in trouble at 96-6 thanks to a spell of superb catching, the highlight coming when Marty Kain stooped low to pull off a brilliant diving effort to dismiss William McClintock.

Ireland rallied slightly to 128-8 with three overs left and when US captain Patel produced an excellent piece of wicketkeeping by running out Barry McCarthy thanks to a classy dive and throw at the stumps, hopes were high of another famous US triumph.

Yet Tucker, who top scored for Ireland in the first match with an unbeaten 57, was ultimately the matchwinner with his fine innings of 84 from 56 balls, which included three sixes, helping to set what seemed an under-par target.

The USA made a promising start in reply but Ireland's bowling was much improved.

Gajanand Singh, the American match-winner with the bat in the first game, again came to the fore and unleashed some mighty blows.

But when Singh was trapped lbw by Campher, the US were left with too much to do despite the best efforts of Sushant Modani, who smacked 27 from 15 - including two sixes - before being caught in the deep.

They needed 17 from the last over but fell just short in an exciting finish.

'Fighting spirit there today'

Ireland captain Andrew Balbirnie said: "The fighting spirit we wanted was there today - it still wasn't a great performance but we got over the line and we showed that character that we want to instil into the group.

"We have a lot of T20 cricket coming up, and a World Cup qualifier soon where we'll need to take a look at ourselves and see where we can improve, but Lorcan was outstanding - he didn't think he'd be batting three at the start of the series but he's someone we think is an exciting cricketer and I thought that was really impressive innings today.

"We knew the USA would be a good team, it's been a hard fought series - we haven't played our best today, but we still found a way, and that's a good sign."

The teams will now play three one-day international matches, starting on Sunday in Lauderhill.