Pakistan restrict Ireland to 106 runs in T20 World Cup

Pakistan restricted Ireland to 106/9  while bowling first in their last match of the T20 World Cup 2024 which is being played at the Central Broward Regional Park Stadium in Lauderhill, Florida on Sunday. 

A dominating display by the Pakistani bowlers made things difficult for the Irish side as Shaheen Afridi, Mohammad Amir, and Imad Wasim all starred with the ball.

Shaheen started the innings for Pakistan brilliantly as he removed Andrew Balbirnie and Lorcan Tucker in the first over, leaving Ireland 2-2.

Pakistani bowlers continued their dominance and kept sending the opponents’ batters back to the pavilion. It looked like Ireland would be all out before even scoring 60 runs as a team but George Dockrell and Gareth Delany’s 44-run partnership helped them reach a decent total.

Delany top-scored for the struggling Irish side with his quick 19-ball 31 which included four boundaries. Joshua Little's contributed 22 runs on 18 balls with three boundaries.

Ireland concluded their innings at 106/9 in 20 overs. For Pakistan, Shaheen and Imad bagged three wickets each, Amir got two while Haris Rauf managed to remove one Irish batter.

Earlier, Pakistan won the toss and opted to bowl first. Babar Azam's side made one change in their playing XI from the previous match against Canada with Abbas Afridi replacing Naseem Shah. Meanwhile, Ireland brought in Ben White for Craig Young. 

Playing XIs

Pakistan: 1 Mohammad Rizwan (wk) 2 Saim Ayub 3 Babar Azam (capt) 4 Fakhar Zaman 5 Usman Khan 6 Shadab Khan 7 Imad Wasim 8 Shaheen Afridi 9 Abbas Afridi 10 Haris Rauf 11 Mohammad Amir

Ireland: 1 Andy Balbirnie 2 Paul Stirling (capt) 3 Lorcan Tucker (wk) 4 Harry Tector 5 Curtis Campher 6 George Dockrell 7 Gareth Delany 8 Mark Adair 9 Barry McCarthy 10 Josh Little 11 Ben White