In what is a historic series, the USA started a new chapter of their cricketing journey with a handsome win over Ireland. Hosting the Test-playing nation for the first time, the Monak Patel-led side packed a punch and managed to pull off an upset in the recently-concluded 1st T20I.
Opting to bat first, the United States were off to a poor start. As they lost four wickets, including their skipper with the scoreboard reading at 16. The fans thought it was all but over. Barry McCarthy broke past the top-order of USA and gave Ireland a major edge early on in the match. However, Sushant Modani and Gajanand Singh pulled the side out of a deep hole as they looked to spend some time in the middle.
Adopting a watchful approach, both the batters focused on strike-rotation. After successfully finishing the recovery process and neutralising the early damage done by the bowlers, Gajanand displayed his hitting prowess. Before becoming a victim of Benjamin White's delivery, Gajanand had smashed a total of three fours and five sixes during his 65-run knock.
Subsequently, Marty Kain joined Sushant in the middle. As only four overs were left in the innings, the batsmen went bonkers and started going after every bowler. Kain crossed the ropes on a few occasions, while Sushant relied on his solid ground play. The duo scored 39 and 50 runs respectively with the total reading 188/6 at the end of 20 overs. McCarthy claimed four scalps, while Simi Singh and White took one wicket apiece.
Ireland did not start well either as they lost their captain Andrew Balbirnie in the 2nd over. Paul Stirling was at his usual best and smashed seven boundaries during his stay at the crease. Saurabh Netravalkar sent the Irish back to the pavilion as the latter registered 31 runs to his name.
Lorcan Tucker and Curtis Campher aimed to keep on with the momentum provided by Stirling but sharp accuracy of USA bowlers did not let them achieve what they desired. Campher played a slow knock, consuming 15 deliveries to score 17 runs. The no. 5 batsman of Ireland Shane Getkate showed promising signs but could not score big.
On the other end, Tucker aimed to take the game deep but was running out of partners. The lower-order could not provide support to him. He managed to score 57 runs in 49 balls but it was not enough as Ireland fell short of the target by 26 runs. For the USA, Ali Khan, Nisarg Patel and Netravalkar were the stars in the bowling department as they took two wickets each.