Benoni – Ireland wasted an excellent start from their opening batsmen and were bowled out for 198 by Australia in a one-off One-Day International at Willowmoore Park on Tuesday.
The Irish, after choosing to bat started very well with openers William Porterfield and Paul Stirling putting on 47 for the first wicket inside the first 10 overs. They were largely untroubled by Australia’s seamers early on with neither John Hastings nor debutant Daniel Worrall making an impression.
In fact once they’d come to terms with conditions - Tuesday’s match was being played on the same pitch as was used for Sunday’s match between Ireland and South Africa - Stirling in particular played freely.
The Australians, perhaps still trying to shake off the rust after a relaxed few days building up to this match, served up plenty of loose deliveries, which Stirling punished with relish. The highlight of his knock was a thumping six which cleared the extra cover boundary by 10 metres off Hastings.
Stirling was dismissed in the manner in which he’d played slashing Scott Boland to Adam Zampa in the covers after scoring 30 - a ball which really should have disappeared to the boundary as well - and from there Ireland’s innings stumbled along with a mid-innings collapse putting paid to any hopes they had of setting Australia a challenging total.
After Porterfield was dismissed lbw in leg-spinner Adam Zampa’s first over, the decisive period of the innings occurred at the end of the 24th over when John Anderson, after scoring a composed 39, was trapped lbw by Scott Boland. That was the first of three Irish wickets to fall in seven balls for the addition of just two runs scuppering any plans they had of launching a big assault at the back end of their innings.
Aside from Zampa, Australia’s bowling was no more than steady and when the South Africans sit down to analyse them ahead of the two teams’ first match in Centurion Friday, they won’t see anything to frighten them.
The Australians looked to be treating their bowling assignment as no more than a glorified training exercise. The four seamers; Worrall, Hastings, Scott Boland and Mitchell Marsh all lacked consistency and the concession of 19 wides will not go down well with Dave Saker, the bowling coach and Ryan Harris, who’s accompanying the squad as a consultant.
Zampa will be pleased with his work, claiming 3/37 in 10 overs. His rhythm was good as was his maintenance of line and length.
Independent Media