Sport

UAE too good for Ireland in opening World Cup qualifier

Vriitya Aravind’s unbeaten 97 leaves Ireland needing a perfect record to still qualify

Paul Stirling top scored for Ireland in the defeat. Photograph: Kaushal Adhikari

Nathan Johns
Fri Feb 18 2022 - 14:06

UAE 157/5 (20 overs) (Vriitya Aravind 98*; Craig Young 2-34) beat Ireland 139/9 (20 overs) (Paul Stirling 32; Karthik Meiyappan 3-18) by 18 runs.

In the end, the UAE just had all the answers.

Placed higher in the world rankings than Ireland and having beaten them on the last four meetings between these sides, today’s 18 run victory for the Emirati nation in Al-Amerat confirmed that the UAE are simply a better outfit in T20 cricket than their Irish counterparts.

The loss in their opening outing of the T20 World Cup qualifiers in Oman leaves Ireland needing three wins in three games to keep alive their hopes of reaching the tournament in Australia next Autumn.

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This Irish side fired plenty of shots on Friday morning but never in succession as the UAE always found a way to stay on top, in large parts thanks to a stunning innings of 97* from 19 year old Vriitya Aravind.

Ireland started the game the better with two wickets with the ball in the powerplay, only for Aravind to then bat 19 overs - as many overs as years he has been alive - ultimately taking the game away.

Then with the bat, Ireland again started well as Paul Stirling and Andrew Balbirnie reached 50 without loss in their own powerplay, only for spinners Karthik Meiyappan and Ahmed Raza to remove Ireland’s top three in quick succession.

Ireland’s weakness with the bat remains their middle order, but Andrew Balbirnie was keen to avoid pointing the finger of blame there after they couldn’t see the chase home.

“We thought the powerplay couldn’t have gone better having lost momentum at the back end of the last innings with the ball” he acknowledged after the defeat. “I think we put them (the middle order) under pressure losing those wickets, so as a top three we have to look at ourselves. One of us should have batted long.”

George Dockrell coming in at number six threatened to take the game back to the UAE with consecutive boundaries off Meiyappan; up stepped Junaid Siddique to remove his off stump with one that reversed back in just enough to beat the bat.

Shane Getkate, Lorcan Tucker and Mark Adair all offered glimmers of hope with late boundaries, but they also departed shortly after looking promising - Adair being dismissed by a stunning diving catch from Meiyappan - as the UAE executed their death bowling skills almost to perfection.

The same cannot be said of Ireland in the first innings. They conceded 33 runs off the final two overs with the ball; compared to the UAE’s figure of just seven.

Full credit must go to Aravind, who initially punished an unusually expensive Simi Singh for lacking a touch of control with his variations. Andy McBrine, Ireland’s other spinner, did exactly as asked, conceding just the 19 runs off his four overs.

But then at the death, Ireland struggled to contain Aravind. Initially, the gamble to give Gareth Delany the 17th over worked as the part-time leggie only went for six runs.

Cue the wheels coming off after that and as much as you need to allow for Aravind’s brilliance, questions also need to be asked of Ireland’s plans.

Josh Little and Mark Adair both tried to hide the ball from Aravind outside the off stump. Little did so with third man inside the ring and Aravind was good enough to continually carve the ball away down to that boundary. The shot of the innings was a ridiculous carve of a yorker high over backward point for six.

When Little did come a touch straighter, Aravind by this stage was too well set and continually created extra width with his footwork to find the same gap.

Adair lacked Little’s accuracy, bowling three wides in a 19th over which cost 14. His overall figures of 1-21 were still good though after an excellent start with the new ball.

Stirling found the boundary regularly in the powerplay when Ireland came back out to chase - as he seemingly always does. Balbirnie wasn’t as fluent as he had been in the warmup games but still showed his favoured cover drive as Ireland looked reasonably well set after the first six.

What followed was the influential interventions of Meiyappan and Raza before the death bowlers Zahoor Khan and Rohan Mustafa took over. From the six over mark, Ireland lost nine wickets for 89 runs.

Their qualification destiny still remains in their own hands. Wins over Bahrain on Saturday and Germany on Monday will ensure progress to the semi-finals. From there, victory takes them both through to the final and onto the plane to Australia next October.

No more margin for error then.

Paul Stirling