Twitter Reactions: David Willey buries World Cup snub with a fifer to steamroll Ireland

After a long wait, limited-overs cricket finally began with the England vs Ireland ODI series taking place. It was also the first series of the ICC Cricket World Cup Super League. England had a revamped squad after some of their regulars had to miss out on this series. This was due to them being involved in the recently concluded England vs West Indies Test series.

Nevertheless, the hosts still started as strong favorites. Eoin Morgan won the toss and elected to bowl. David Willey, who had missed out on a World Cup spot in 2019 rose to the occasion. With a depleted English bowling attack, the pacer provided early breakthroughs for his team. The Irish side was restricted to 28/5, with the left-arm swing bowler getting four of the wickets.

The visitors were in deep trouble and desperately needed a partnership. Keven O’Brien and Curtis Campher came together to make a fifty-one run stand for the sixth wicket. Ireland lost the former and Simi Singh’s wicket in quick succession. After being 79/7 Campher and Andy McBrine displayed some great batting to bring up a sixty-six run partnership for the eighth wicket.

Ireland could not capitalize on this and were eventually bowled out for only 172 runs in 44.4 overs. Willey got a fifer, Saqib Mahmood took two while Adil Rashid and Tom Curran ended with a wicket each. Campher who was the highest scorer for the Irish side stayed unbeaten on 59.

A comfortable victory for England

With only 173 runs to get in 50 overs, the match was definitely inclined towards the hosts. They did not disappoint their fans and after some early hiccups, they went on to win the match comfortably. Some good bowling from the visitors had led to the England side being 78/4 at the end of 13.4 overs. However, they were also leaking runs with the hosts having a run-rate of almost six.

After the hosts losing four wickets, captain Morgan finally came in to bat at number six. He along with Sam Billings, combined to make an unbeaten 96-run partnership for the fifth wicket. This stand was enough to guide the hosts to a safe victory. Billings scored a good 67* while the captain chipped in with 36* runs. For Ireland, Craig Young got a couple of wickets while Andy McBrine and Curtis Campher ended with a wicket each.

Here are the best tweets from the game

That's most balls faced on debut in an ODI by a batsman batting outside the top 6.
Take a tiny bow, Curtis Campher!#ENGvIRE

— Bertus de Jong (@BdJcricket) July 30, 2020

Eco-warrior David Willey ensuring we won't need to waste power on the floodlights, impressive holistic approach to environmentalism

— Ben Jones (@benjonescricket) July 30, 2020

Eoin Morgan has played 295 reverse-sweeps against spin over the last decade, across formats. Nobody has played more in that time. #ENGvIRE

— The CricViz Analyst (@cricvizanalyst) July 30, 2020

A very, very well-earned bat raise from the young man 🙌#BackingGreen ☘️🏏 pic.twitter.com/1t2YFUZPUX

— Cricket Ireland (@Irelandcricket) July 30, 2020

Sam Billings takes England home. #ENGvIRE

— Kanishk (@kannzzp) July 30, 2020

Impressive win by England, at one stage they did go little under pressure at 78/4, but that partnership between morgan and billings got them home, Billings looked good and impressive and made full use of the opportunity #ENGvIRE

— Aqib Mansoor (@AqibMansoor5) July 30, 2020

5️⃣9️⃣*️⃣ runs
1️⃣/2️⃣6️⃣

Curtis Campher is only the 17th player to score a fifty and take a wicket on ODI debut 💪 #ENGvIRE pic.twitter.com/tdYLVRtQ45

— ICC (@ICC) July 30, 2020

Great to see some comeback performances from David Willey and Sam Billings today. Billings played some lovely shots in a game generally marred by some poor batting. #ENGvIRE

— Thomas Roper (@tomroper87) July 30, 2020

David Willey in ODIs at Southampton:
3️⃣ matches
🔟 wickets
1️⃣5️⃣.6️⃣0️⃣ average
1️⃣7️⃣.2️⃣ strike rate
🔥🔥🔥

How big a role will the left-armer play in the rest of the #ENGvIRE series? pic.twitter.com/TjEW8NHC34

— ICC (@ICC) July 30, 2020

"I wasn't sure if my opportunity would come again."

David Willey reflects on his Player of the Match display after England beat Ireland by six wickets. #EngvIRE

Reaction 👉 https://t.co/EgKn7so5qV
Blog 👉 https://t.co/WzhQDIArCL pic.twitter.com/Ou501AHxaJ

— Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket) July 30, 2020

Back with a bang @david_willey 💪

A good start to our ODI summer 👍 pic.twitter.com/fd53VKAmPs

— England Cricket (@englandcricket) July 30, 2020

That would be Banton's last game in an England shirt for quite a while if Virat Kohli was England captain. Thankfully he's not.

— Kieran (@BerbaSpin) July 30, 2020

Saqib Mahmood touching 141 kph, this is really good start from him. #ENGvIRE

— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) July 30, 2020

Nice to get back to work today. Disappointing result for @Irelandcricket but @englandcricket were impressive after a long lay off. Being looked after very well by all the staff down at @TheAgeasBowl . See you all for game 2 on Saturday.

— Niall John O Brien (@niallnobiobrien) July 30, 2020

Congratulations @david_willey on your 5 For. Both @RachaelBoycott and I are delighted for you. Well done.

— Sir Geoffrey Boycott (@GeoffreyBoycott) July 30, 2020