Defending ODI World Cup champions England tasted a shock defeat to neighbours Ireland, losing by five runs by the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method after the game was interrupted by rain.
They were far from their best in pursuit of Ireland’s 157 on what was definitely a tricky wicket to bat on. The Three Lions kept losing wickets in regular intervals, as openers Jos Buttler and Alex Hales departed early, thanks to an impressive opening spell from left-armer Josh Little.
England were five down at the time of the interruption, having lost Stokes, Malan, and Brook. The DLS method came into action at this point, which suggested that the English were five runs short of the par score, giving Ireland a crucial victory.
Some fans were of the opinion that the DLS system did not take into account the context of the game, with England still having Liam Livingstone and Moeen Ali at the crease and Sam Curran and Chris Woakes yet to come. With such a destructive set of batsmen still at England’s disposal, there were a few, including Buttler, who were frustrated with the result.
England also alleged the Irish of taking undue advantage of the weather conditions, as the Ireland bowlers seemed to bowl at a slower over rate. Buttler took a dig against the Irish during the post-match presentation but nevertheless admitted that his side did not deserve the two points at the end of the day.
“If we were ahead, they wouldn’t have been slowing the game down. Yeah, it’s certainly something, whether it’s gamesmanship. I knew the rain was coming and could slow the game up. I think we had lost the game before that point.
As I mentioned, we had all the things we needed in our favour. If we were ahead, they wouldn’t have been slowing the game down. So I think we should take responsibility ourselves, and we should never let it get to that kind of situation,”
Buttler said.
Ireland skipper Andrew Balbirnie addressed the comments made by Buttler immediately, saying:
“No, it wasn’t. Our lads are just really slow on the pitch. It was a huge ground. It wasn’t gamesmanship. If it was, I would have slowed it down even more and we maybe would have been 5 or 6 overs down. Certainly I was trying my best to get out through the overs quick because I didn’t want to rely on the weather.”
