IRE vs ENG, Review | Jordan Cox and Adil Rashid performances ensure England claim series 2-0

England won the toss and chose to bowl first in the third and final game in Dublin, and was caught by surprise by Irish opener Ross Adair, who took the attack to Sonny Baker early on. However, there was a bit of a break in the scoring rate after the first three overs, after Liam Dawson found the outside edge of Ireland skipper Paul Stirling in the fourth over. Despite Adair’s efforts at the start, the hosts could only manage to finish the power play on a score of 46/1. The real problems for the Irish batters started after the power play, as Adair’s quickfire knock of 33 was brought to an end by Rehan Ahmed and Jamie Overton’s double strike in the ninth over. As wickets continued to fall after regular intervals, the Green and Whites were caught in a tricky position at 58/4 after nine overs. Though the home side might not have had a productive start to their innings, Harry Tector and Ben Calitz tried to steady the ship with a partnership in the second half of the innings. Unfortunately, as soon as the two batters started to find some rhythm, Dawson returned in the 14th over and got the crucial wicket of Tector as Ireland lost half their side with the score reading 93/5. The situation went from bad to worse as Adil Rashid dismissed both Calitz and Barry McCarthy in the 15th over to add salt to the Irish wounds. With the tail exposed, it seemed like the Three Lions might bundle out the Irish on a low score, but Gareth Delaney had other plans. The spin bowling all-rounder played a crucial knock of 48 off 29 deliveries to ensure that his team reached a defendable score of 154/8 in the end.

Though the score was not looking challenging on paper, the visitors got a bit of a surprise as Jos Buttler was dismissed for a two-ball duck due to a stunner by Curtis Campher in the cover region, and Jacob Bethell threw his wicket away in the fifth over. Despite the couple of blows, Jordan Cox and Philip Salt ensured that they finished the first six overs on a solid score of 57/2. The two batters continued to accumulate runs after the field restrictions were removed and put on 57 runs for the third wicket before Salt was finally dismissed by Campher in the 10th over. Though Salt failed to convert his start of 29 off 23 deliveries, the English were already in a comfortable position at 99/3, needing only 56 runs off the last 60 balls. The Irish bowlers never got back in the game after the 50+ stand, as Cox and Tom Banton continued the run flow straight after the third wicket partnership. Both batters formed a 49-run partnership and brought the equation down to 16 off 30 deliveries. Though Cox nicely composed a knock of 55 off 35 deliveries, which came to an end in the 16th over, the damage was already done as Rehan Ahmed and Banton completed the chase in 17.1 overs. With this six-wicket win, England claimed the series 2-0, and Adil Rashid was awarded the player of the match for his incredible spell of 3/29 in four overs.