ENG vs IRE | 3rd ODI - Ask me anything ft. Ireland’s deja vu moment, Captain Morgan and a pounding Stirling

Brief scores: Ireland 329/3 (Paul Stirling 142 and Rashid 1/61) beat England 328 (Morgan 106 and Young 3/53) by 7 wickets.

Tell me there was a Roy-Bairstow masterclass, please?

Oh snap, did ‘all-rounder’ James Vince make use of it?

James Vince’s career and his series against Ireland has been pretty much the same, a lot of expectations without any kind of result. Once again he was presented with the chance of bailing England out of the trouble and he failed in terrible fashion, getting tangled like my ol’ earphones when 3.55 mm jacks were still a thing. He could only score 16 off 18 balls while being at the crease. 

Hope is a good thing but a hope like this, never really works its way to reality. Captain Morgan bailed them out of trouble with an innings that was always around the corner against his former side. Since 2019, he averages above 50 and surely is ageing like a fine wine while several voiced their criticism. Morgan’s 14th ODI century was truly a masterclass and was reminiscent of his innings against Afghanistan in the World Cup but only better. His range of shots was just exquisite and his timing, let’s not debate it!

Was Sam Billings at the other end during Morgan’s carnage?

Enough of England, let’s talk about Ireland, please?

Oh yes, sorry about that but hasn’t it been the trend of the series? Seldom have we really seen a positive from Ireland’s fragile and young team! But today was different, I have to say as they put up a really good fight against the English top-order which was looking to bully them. In specific, Craig Young was exceptional, with a three-fer that had Roy, Vince and Billings walking back to the hut. 

Well from 203/6, they did not do a Torres and missed out on an easy chance, rather they took it on themselves and pulled off a Martial. A wise innings from David Willey (51 off 42) and Tom Curran (33 from 54) ensured that the hosts reached 328 following the end of their innings. Ireland did not do really bad, it's just that they forgot the English depth as Craig Young impressed one and all with his show. 

How about the Irish innings?

Surely, the 329 luck must have hit them hard? 

Oh, you do remember that, yes there is some sort of strange relationship between 329 and Ireland. While it was Kevin O’ Brien with a century there against England in Bengaluru, it was Stirling here in Southampton, scoring an incredible ton against the hosts’ attack which looked a bit lacklustre, including the spinners - Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid. 

You got me wrong, I’m just reporting the game, not predicting the future for this English team. And if it was up to me, Ali would not have featured in the third ODI after the first two games. He looked clueless with the bat, like say a second-grader looking at cursive writing. After Eoin Morgan walked off with an injury, he also became the captain, making some clueless decisions. The last year has been pretty much this way for the Birmingham spinner, hopefully, he comes back to his true form soon. 

Skippers leading from the front kind of night, right?

So you built it so much now, what happened in the end?

Well, it was in short a thrilling contest, imagine writing this at 2 AM and still calling it ‘interesting.’ It is understandable that England were fielding a second-string side but this team are the World Champions, even their second-best is enough to leave Ireland toppled, as seen in the first two encounters. There were so many characters, so many turns that even Christopher Nolan would have been left Dunkirked. 

If you are sticking purely to the word, yes they are world-beaters because they just defeated the World Champions in stunning fashion. But if you are asking genuinely, no not a chance against the top opposition. After the bashing in the first two games, this one surely sprung a new life into this series and to the new ODI qualifiers that can finally breathe.