Australia v Ireland, Only ODI, Review: Australia cruise to a simple 9 wicket win

Usman Khawaja and Skipper Steven Smith spearheaded Australia to a comfortable 9 wicket over Ireland in the one-off ODI contest at the Willowmoore Park, Benoni. The Irishmen were no match facing the much stronger opposition and were suppressed in the game right from the start.

Chasing a modest target of 199 to win, opener Khawaja struck a fluent 82 and Smith knock a patient 59 to guide his team past the victory line without breaking any sweat. With this win, Australia starts their tour in supreme style.

Openers David Warner and Usman Khawaja kickstarted the chase in grand style, racing their way to a 73 run partnership for the opening wicket in just 8.4 overs before Warner departed just two runs short of his half-century.

Warner started off in his usual manner, knocking off the ball to the boundary ropes from the first over. Khwaja also picked up the pace after a couple of over and brought up the team fifty with a boundary in just 5.3 overs.

The Irish bowlers tried bowling stump to stump but in vain as the duo continued flourishing. The brakes could be only applied after Tim Murtagh was successful in forcing Warner to commit a fatal error. The left-hander misjudged a cutter and scooped the ball straight back to the bowler who took a simple catch and ended his innings.

Ireland, however, did not taste any further success as skipper Smith joined in with Khawaja to steer his team to the victory with an unbeaten 126 run stand for the 2nd wicket to finish the match in no time.

Earlier, Ireland decided to bat first after winning the toss but could not take the advantage of batting first on an easy wicket. The top order got the starts but could progress to make any substantial contribution and put pressure on the Australians.

Opener William Porterfield and Pual Stirling stitched 47 runs for the opening wicket to give steady a steady start. But, Australian bowler soon began making inroads and the Irishmen began falling one by one.

Paul Stirling and James Anderson reached their thirties but lost their wicket to Scott Boland. Skipper Porterfield fell victim to Adam Zampa. Ireland, despite these wickets at regular intervals, had reached the half-way stage and still had a good chance to stage a revival and tale their score to a competitive level.

But, the 25th over bowled by debutant Daniel Worrall’s saw Ireland plunge further and they lost their plot completely. Gary Wilson and John Teryy departed in the same over.

Adam Zampa and John Hasting the sped up the clean up work and polished off the remainder of the batting line-up quickly restri=ting Ireland to just 198 in 43.5 overs.

Brief Scores:

Ireland: 198 all out in 43.5 overs (John Anderson 39; A Zampa 3/37)

Australia: 199/1 in 30.1 overs (U Khawaja 82; Tim Murtagh 1/21)

Man of the Match: U Khawaja