Glenn Phillips and Lockie Ferguson were the stand-out performers in New Zealand’s dominating win over Ireland in the first of three T20Is in Belfast on July 18. The middle-order batter and Kiwis’ superquick pacer came up with exceptional acts in their respective skills to enable the visitors’ 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
Phillips played the knock that perhaps took the match away from a fighting Irish unit as his measured 69 off 52 deliveries helped the Kiwis push their score to 173/8 batting first. The tourists may have finished well below that if not for Phillips playing their guiding light with bat in hand.
The Kiwis also had opener Martin Guptill (24), James Neesham (29) and Michael Bracewell (21) playing attractive cameos but that substantial hand which the innings needed was provided by Phillips, who is growing in stature as one of New Zealand’s match-winners.
Ireland had their moments with the ball but lacked a collective effort that may have restricted the Kiwis to a manageable score. They had Joshua Little and Mark Adair amongst the wickets, but they also proved expensive for their respective spells of 4/35 and 2/49.
Talking of an unconvincing, incomplete effort, the theme was similar with the bat for the Irishmen, who lost wickets at regular intervals and eventually folded for 142 inside 19 overs. In a scorecard that summed up Ireland’s longstanding issues as a batting unit in T20Is, only Curtis Campher (29) and Adair (25) made it into the twenties.
But to put Ireland’s downfall completely down to their own folly would be ignorant to a wonderful performance from the Kiwis with the ball led by Ferguson, who finished with stellar figures of 4 for 14. Backing him well were Jacob Duffy (1/22) and Neesham (2/19), while left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner (2/36) was also amongst the wickets.
Brief scores
New Zealand 173/8 in 20 overs (Phillips 69*; Little 4/35, Adair 2/49) beat Ireland 142/10 in 18.2 overs (Curtis Campher 29; Lockie Ferguson 4/14, James Neesham 2/19) by 31 runs
