Pakistan entered the semis, a fine victory over Ireland

Pakistan won by 39 runs.

Match Summary

Pakistan 159-5 (K Akmal 57)
Ireland 120-9 (W Porterfield 40)
Pakistan won by 39 runs.

Match Review

Directed from Sky Sports,
Pakistan booked their place in the semi-finals of the World Twenty20 with a fine 39-run victory over Ireland in their must-win Super Eights match.

Younis Khan’s men made a shocking start to the tournament but their enigmatic team produced their best form to dominate the Irish and they now move into the last four of the tournament.

Kamran Akmal made a half-century and Shahid Afridi a lively 24 as Pakistan made 159-5 from their 20 overs, Kyle McCallan taking two wickets for Ireland and Boyd Rankin excellent when conceding just 11 runs from four overs.

The target looked gettable but Pakistan’s bowlers produced a stunning display of consistency to frustrate the Irish batsman early on before wickets tumbled towards the end of the innings as the run rate became too much.

Umar Gul added two more wickets to his tally along with a run-out while Saeed Ajmal took 4-19 as Pakistan easily defended their total.

Solid start
Pakistan made a solid start with Shahzaib Hasan making a spritely 23 before falling to Alex Cusack with the score on 38, and Afridi was sent in early to push the pace along further.

Afridi did just that with 24 off 13 balls, but he went for one big shot too many as he was caught in the deep by John Mooney off McCallan.

Younis Khan went for ten but Akmal was standing firm at the other end, and he made 57 from 51 balls, including five fours and a six, by the time he was bowled by Regan West with the score on 133-4.

Rankin was superb for the Irish in conceding just 11 runs from four overs, while McCallan took 2-26 as Pakistan eventually ended on 159-5, a score that could see the game go either way.

Ireland struggled from the start in their reply as they lost opener Niall O’Brien in the third over for seven, and 18-year-old Paul Stirling followed in the seventh after he made a decent debut score of 17.

Ajmal strikes
Skipper Porterfield made 40 off 36 balls when Ajmal got the breakthrough, leaving Ireland on 87-3 in the 14th over and the asking rate was rapidly rising out of control.

Mooney was caught in the deep by Abdul Razzaq, for Ajmal’s second wicket, as he tried to hurry the scoring along but at 98-4, Ireland now needed 62 to win from just four overs.

Gul was brought on relatively late but the tournament’s leading wicket-taker made his mark by cleaning out Trent Johnston’s off stump for a duck, to make it 99-5.

Kevin O’Brien made a manful 26 before being stumped by Akmal off Ajmal, and the duo repeated the dose to send Cusack packing in the same 18th over to give the off-spinner his fourth wicket.

110-7 became 110-8 with the very next ball as Gul again made a mess of the stumps behind Andrew White with yet another deadly yorker, and the man of the moment then ran out West off his own bowling after a mix-up.

Sri Lankan Team Proved to be too good for Ireland

Sri Lanka won by 9 runs

Match Summary

Sri Lanka 144-9(M Jayawardene 78)
Ireland 135-7 (J Mooney 31)
Sri Lanka won by 9 runs.

Match Review

Directed from Sky Sports,

Ireland are out of the ICC World Twenty20 after losing by nine runs to Sri Lanka on Sunday.

Mahela Jayawardene’s rapid half-century helped Sri Lanka to a total of 144-9 after they had opted to bat first on a slow pitch at Lord’s.

And Ireland looked capable of claiming their second scalp of the tournament, having beaten Bangladesh in the initial group phase, when opening pair William Porterfield and Niall O’Brien put on 59 in nine overs at the start of the run chase.

But Sri Lanka’s star bowling trio of Muttiah Muralitharan, Ajantha Mendis and Lasith Malinga bailed out their team with a flurry of wickets, the required rate spiralled and Ireland finished up short on 135-7.

Defeat ends Ireland’s hopes of reaching the semi-finals, while Sri Lanka are now top of Group F on four points and almost certain to progress to last four.

Collapse
Muralitharan (1-13) started the collapse by having Porterfield caught behind for 31 with the first ball of the 10th over.

Andrew White (21) helped Niall O’Brien add 28 for the second wicket but fell to Nuwan Kulasekara, top edging an attempted scoop.

O’Brien was joined by his younger brother Kevin with the score at 87-2 but both departed in the space of four Mendis (2-22) deliveries.

Kevin top-edged a slog to Tillakaratne Dilshan at midwicket for a duck and Niall (31) was stumped after charging down the pitch and missing.

And Malinga speared in the yorkers superbly in the death overs, bowling Trent Johnston (9) and Andre Botha (0) with successive deliveries in the 18th over to reduce Ireland to 106-6.

Ireland required 36 off the final 12 balls and, after taking Kulasekera (1-47) for 18 off the penultimate over, still retained glimmer of hope.

But Malinga conceded just eight, including the run out of Alex Cusack attempting to take one to the wicketkeeper, to complete figures of 2-19 as Ireland closed just shy.

Poor start
Jayawardene had earlier hit 78 off off 53 balls as Sri Lanka recovered from a poor start to their innings.

Dilshan, the tournament’s second highest scorer, fell second ball when he mistimed an attempted pull off Boyd Rankin (2-27) to became one of four victims for wicketkeeper Niall O’Brien.

Dilshan’s early departure was quickly followed by captain Kumar Sangakkara (3), brilliantly caught stood up to the stumps by O’Brien off seamer Trent Johnston (1-18), to leave Sri Lanka struggling on 14-2.

Ireland restricted Sri Lanka’s powerful line-up to 28-2 at the end of the six powerplay overs - easily their worst start of the tournament.

But Jayawardene teamed up with 39-year-old opener Sanath Jayasuriya in a 67-run stand off 49 balls, including a spell of 37 off just three overs, to put them on course for a much bigger total.

Instead of pushing on to a major score, however, they stumbled again with Jayasuriya falling lbw to Kevin McCallan’s off-spin for 27.

Jayawardene departed to Alex Cusack in the 18th over having hit nine fours and a six, one of five Sri Lankan batsman to fall for 14 runs in 16 balls to leave Ireland facing a far more modest total than they would have expected.

Medium pacer Cusack finished with figures of 4-18 from three overs, all his victims coming in the space of nine balls.

Ireland face Pakistan in their final Group F fixture at the Oval on Monday, while Sri Lanka take on New Zealand at Trent Bridge the following day.

T20 World Cup

ICC T20 World Cup, Today’s matches are as follow

12:30 GMT, 13:30 local - Ireland v Sri Lanka
Lord’s, England
16:30 GMT, 17:30 local - England v India
Lord’s, England

Ireland VS New Zealand

So far, Ireland has done themselves very good in this world cup, by beating Bangladesh n putting up a good resistance show against India too but in this match they had to face off with a strong New Zealand Side

A spate of injuries forced New Zealand to call up Aaron Redmond to their World Twenty20 squad at short notice and throw him into action straightaway against Ireland in their Super Eights’ opener at Trent Bridge. He answered their call with an astonishing innings, piercing gaps in the infield with pinpoint accuracy to blast 63 off 30. His half-century and cameos from Scott Styris and Martin Guptill ensured that a weakened New Zealand did not slip on a banana skin and completed a comfortable 83-run victory.

New Zealand were without three of their best players - Jesse Ryder was ruled out of the tournament with an infection while Ross Taylor and Daniel Vettori had hamstring and shoulder injuries - so they sent an SOS to Redmond, playing in the Bolton League in England. He’d never played a limited-overs international but opening in a World Twenty20 match was a seamless transition.

Wearing Brendon McCullum’s shirt with the name blacked out, Redmond began by driving a full ball from Peter Connell to the cover boundary, the first in a glut of boundaries. He hit two more fours off Connell’s first over towards backward point and third man before turning his attention to Trent Johnston, who was returning after missing the game against India. The first two balls raced to the point and straight boundaries and the last two were dispatched to square leg and midwicket. Redmond had hit seven fours off his first ten balls.

Johnston changed ends but to no avail. Redmond flicked the first ball of Johnston’s second over to the midwicket boundary and lofted the second down the ground. Redmond had contributed 40 out of New Zealand’s total of 44 when Brendon McCullum finally decided to make an appearance and pulled Kevin O’Brien to hit the tournament’s 100th six. However, he failed to clear mid-off while stepping out to Kyle McCallan and holed out soon after.

The focus shifted back to Redmond who brought up his fifty, off 23 balls, by reverse-sweeping McCallan for consecutive fours. He had hit no sixes but had 13 fours. Those who watched him struggle during the Tests in England last year would have been surprised for Redmond managed only 54 runs in three matches on that tour. Those who watched him ransack 100 off 56 balls for Otago against Central Districts in the State Twenty20 in February would not.

Redmond was eventually lbw to Alex Cusack, playing across the line but had done more than enough to set up the innings. Styris made Ireland pay for Regan West’s missed caught-and-bowled chance by hammering 42 off 25 balls and Guptill launched the ball into the stands four times during his 45 off 32. New Zealand didn’t manage 200, but their total of 198 was beyond the range of Ireland’s guns.

Ireland needed a combination of magnificent batting and luck to get near New Zealand and they got neither. Their opener William Porterfield was run out in the first over while backing up too far after Kyle Mills got his fingertips on to Gary Wilson’s firm drive before the ball crashed into the stumps. Their best batsman in the win against Bangladesh, Niall O’Brien, dragged a length delivery straight to mid-on in Mills’ second over.

A collapse from 15 for 2, though, was averted by a steady partnership between Wilson and Andre Botha but they were unable to match the asking-rate and had reached only 42 by the end of the Powerplay. The blows that sealed Ireland’s fate, however, came in the space of four balls. Wilson’s attempt to loft Styris over long-off was held by James Franklin and Botha was run out attempting a non-existent single, leaving Ireland on 58 for 4.

The ensuing slide was swift and Ireland lost wickets quickly even as the required run-rate soared to 15 an over and beyond. Nathan McCullum prospered, picking up 3 for 15, while his brother Brendon was outstanding in the infield. He scored direct hits to run out John Mooney and Johnston, and took a sharp catch to his right at midwicket to dismiss Cusack. New Zealand may have appeared weak on paper but their performance at Trent Bridge on the day was anything but.

Final Scores were as follow:

New Zealand: 198/5 in 20 Overs

Ireland: 115 all out in 16.4 Overs