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Lorcan Tucker’s fighting knock in vain as Ireland lose to Australia

01 Nov 2022

Lorcan Tucker’s brave knock of 71* from 48 deliveries went in vain as Ireland lost their Super 12 encounter of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup to Australia by 42 runs at the Gabba in Brisbane yesterday (31 October). The hosts got off to a slow start as the Irish bowlers used the conditions well to keep Australia relatively quiet. Barry McCarthy dismissed David Warner in the third over of the innings before Australia could get any sort of momentum going. Aaron Finch and Mitchell Marsh tried their best but they could only take Australia to a score of 38/1 at the end of the powerplay. Finch was involved in two crucial partnerships of 52 and 70 with Marsh and Marcus Stoinis respectively, which helped Australia in getting to a competitive total. It was McCarthy once again who brought an end to Finch’s knock while Stoinis also played a good hand, making 35 from 25 deliveries. Matthew Wade and Tim David, who remained unbeaten on seven and 15 respectively, also added valuable runs towards the end. Ireland suffer an early collapse Skipper Andrew Balbirnie and Paul Stirling played some breathtaking shots to start off the Irish innings. They put on an opening stand of 18 runs within just two overs but the Australian bowlers made a quick recovery and destroyed Ireland’s top and middle order completely. The collapse started with Andrew Balbirnie’s wicket as Pat Cummins cleaned him up with an excellent inswinger. But Ireland then lost two wickets in the third over to Glenn Maxwell, and then another two in the fourth over to Mitchell Starc. These successive jolts left Ireland reeling at 25/5 and made it extremely difficult for them to get back into the contest. Lorcan Tucker fights back The match seemed to be heading towards an early finish by the fourth over, but Tucker stepped up and played a brave knock to keep his team in the chase. The 26-year-old paced his innings well and built crucial partnerships with Gareth Delaney and Mark Adair. He did the bulk of the scoring in both the stands and also in the ones that followed, carrying his bat right until the end.  Tucker remained unbeaten on 71 from 48 deliveries as Ireland finally got bowled out for 137. Australia pushed their net run rate up to -0.304, still below that of England, but leapfrogged them to the second position in the Group 1 table with the victory.  England take on New Zealand in a key clash in the tournament today (1). (ICC)


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