Mitchell Santner produced a brilliant final spell to spin New Zealand to a 51-run victory, rendering Niall O’Brien’s maiden hundred futile in the second ODI of the tri-series in Dublin on Sunday (May 14). Set to chase 290 for a win, after having already endured a wash-out in the series opener against Bangladesh, Niall played a lone hand to keep the home side in the hunt but Santner’s four wickets in the latter half of the innings turned the game on its head and helped New Zealand avoid a scare.
Ireland’s reply was dented early when Scott Kuggeleijn took out both the openers in the space of eight deliveries. Niall, coming in at one-down, then struck two crucial partnerships – worth 86 for the third wicket with Andy Balbirnie and 75 for the fifth wicket Gary Wilson – that kept Ireland on track. But even that went haywire after the wicketkeeper’s dismissal in the death overs.
While both his batting partners contributed very little, Niall kept striking cleanly to keep the scoreboard ticking as Ireland constantly tried to stay abreast with the asking rate. He took his time to get going but once he settled in, boundaries started flowing in more often. Jimmy Neesham was hit to the fence thrice in successive overs before he welcomed Colin Munro back into the attack with a six. The unbeaten 67-run stand at the end of 20 overs had taken Ireland to 93 for 2 but when the rain-break arrived, the home side was found to be nine short of par score on D/L/S calculation.
Though the forced break that lasted little over half an hour did not cost any overs, Ireland had to step up the scoring rate to ensure that should there be another interruption, they won’t be in the arrears. Upon resumtpion, Niall went after Santner to pluck 12 off the over, including his second six and a boundary. However, the break in momentum cost them Balbirnie’s wicket, and that of Kevin O’Brien in quick succession.
Santner got the breakthough, taking a catch off his own bowling to dismiss the No. 4 batsman, before Ish Sodhi joined the party to end Kevin’s brief stay in the middle. But Niall wasn’t in the mood to give up so easily on the chase. New Zealand persisted with Santner and the Irish wicketkeeper-batsman slammed the left-handed spinner for four, six and four, raising his fifty with the first strike. The 15-run over meant Santner’s figures read 6-0-43-1 at the end of his first spell.
But as Niall tried to cut down the gap between their run rate and the asking rate, New Zealand came back hard at them to trigger a late collapse. Kuggeleijn struck with the first ball of his new spell to get rid of Wilson on 30, breaking a 75-run partnership. Niall kept attacking, and losing partners at the other end, almost regularly. With the tail exposed, Tom Latham brought back Santner who turned in a final spell of 4-0-7-4 to seal the fate of the game. Simi Singh failed to click in his debut game, George Dockrell departed next, courtesy a blinder from Latham. Niall hit another one over the deep midwicket ropes to raise his maiden ODI hundred but even that wasn’t enough to script an upset. Santner got the key wicket in the 45th over to end Ireland’s hopes and completed the five-wicket haul with Barry McCarthy’s scalp. Four balls later, Seth Rance brought curtains down on Ireland’s chase, 51 shy.
Earlier, it took brisk half-centuries from Neil Broom and Ross Taylor and a maiden one from George Worker to lift New Zealand from a middle-over crisis and post a daunting 289, after being put in to bat under overcast skies. Luke Ronchi looked promising during his brief stay and helped the visitors off to a flying start with a 26-ball 37 that included as many as seven boundaries. McCarthy helped hosts breakthrough with the wickets of both Kiwi openers – Ronchi miscued an attempted lofted shot while Latham poked at a delivery wide outside off to edge it to the keeper.
George Worker’s inability to rotate the strike efficiently with senior pro Ross Taylor strangled the flow of runs from one end in the middle overs but Taylor overcame that with a fluent half-century knock. Taylor, who was striking at nearly run-a-ball throughout, didn’t play a chanceless knock but ensured he made Ireland pay for the two edges that went begging, by bringing up his 28th ODI fifty, off 56 deliveries.
Kevin O’Brien struck soon after New Zealand seemed to be gaining an upper hand. Taylor, looking to guide one to third man, was caught unawares by the extra bounce and edged the ball to the gully fielder. Though Worker improved his scoring pace after the departure of the senior partner, it was Broom who truly pepped up the scoring rate. Worker did get to his maiden ODI fifty with back to back boundaries of Tim Murtagh but the bowler had the last laugh as the 24-year-old holed out the very next ball to Simi in the deep.With about ten overs to go in their innings, Broom pressed the accelerator, going particularly after Chase, who finished with figures of 74 for 1. The 44th over, that fetched 19 runs, saw Broom register his half-century, off 46 deliveries, with a six sandwiched between a couple of boundaries. Adding insult to injury, Broom got a life right after an unwanted rain break, dropped by Simi in the same over.
Broom went on hammer four more boundaries to take his final score to 79 before being his lazy running cost him his wicket. Neesham’s handy knock of 30 took New Zealand to a total that, despite Niall’s counter atacking ton, proved sufficient.
Brief scores
New Zealand 289/7 in 50 overs (Neil Broom 79, Ross Taylor 52, George Worker 50; Barry McCarthy 2-59, tim Murtagh 2-62) beat
Ireland 238 in 45.3 overs (Niall O’Brien 109, Andy Balbirnie 36; Mitchel Santner 5-50, Scott Kuggeleijn 3-41) by 51 runs.
. Set to chase 290 for a win, after having already endured a wash-out in the series opener against Bangladesh, Niall played a lone hand to keep the home side in the hunt but Santner's four wickets in the latter half of the innings turned the game on its head and helped New Zealand avoid a scare.){kind=link}