ICC I-Cup: Joyce stars with a quickfire double ton on Day 1

ICC I-Cup: Joyce stars with a quickfire double ton on Day 1: The seventh edition of ICC Intercontinental Cup started off with a run flow from Ireland batsmen’s bat especially from Ed Joyce who toned run a ball double century. As a result the defending champions of the Intercontinental Cup, Ireland scored 420 for the loss of 3 wickets at end of 1st day’s play against the United Arab Emirates at Dublin.

UAE’s captain Mohammad Tauqir asked Ireland to bat first after winning the toss under the overcast conditions after a delayed start. Ireland got off to a cautious start with the openers William Porterfield and Paul Stirling put on a half century stand for first wicket. Stirling played in his own style by playing shots whereas Captain Porterfield looked to survive till he gave a catch at gully off Mohammad Naveed bringing an end to his innings of 17 and a stand worth 58 spread over 21 overs.

Then began the real test for UAE bowlers as the new batsman Ed Joyce along with Stirling scored runs at a good run rate. Stirling brought up his 50 in 74 balls by hitting Amjad Javed’s delivery down the ground for a boundary and continued to play his shots. Ed Joyce who started off his innings by picking up singles slowly picked up the pace off the innings. About 4 overs before tea, the both batsmen went bonkers over the bowling as they yielded 42 runs and brought up the 100 run stand in 159 balls. In the penultimate over of the second session, Paul Stirling brought up his 4th First Class century in just 147 deliveries by cutting a Fayyaz Ahmed’s delivery through slips. Just before Stirling completed his ton, Ed Joyce brought up his fifty in 88 balls with a pull off Amjad Javed.

Post Tea break was more eventful from Ireland as they scored nearly 6 an over in the session. After the break, Joyce looked more aggressive than Stirling as a result he completed his century in 133 balls, taking only 45 balls for the second fifty. This was Ed Joyce’s 40th First Class century. Soon Stirling’s knock came to an end as he mistimed a shot off Fayyad Ahmed bringing an end to his innings off 146 which had 17 fours and 3 sixes. This wicket brought an end to a 231 run stand for 2nd wicket which came in span of 45.5 overs.

With Ed Joyce kept his attacking spree continuing, Niall O’Brien kept defending on other end. Joyce brought up his 150 mark in 180 balls, taking 49 balls after his century. Joyce was almost playing a Twenty20 after that as he took on Tauqir hitting 4, 4, 6 and 6 and yielded 23 runs from the over. On the other end, Niall’s resistance came to an end when he gave a return catch to Tauqir bringing an end to 85 runs stand in which the elder of O’Brian brothers was only 13 runs.

Soon after the fall of 3rd wicket, Ed Joyce struck 4 fours in spare of 5 balls against Guruge and brought up his double century in 209 balls. Joyce took just 29 balls after his 150 to bring up his double century. He was only the 8th player to score a double ton in the ICC Intercontinental cup history which seen only 3 off them score one more Double century. Joyce struck 16 runs in the penultimate over and finished unbeaten on 229 in just 223 deliveries with had 29 fours and 3 sixes. In this process, he completed 16000 runs in First Class Cricket. Also this was Joyce’s highest individual total in FC Cricket and, it was the 4th highest individual score in ICC I-Cup history with the highest been 259* by Ryan Ten Doeschate in 2006.

Brief Scores:

Ireland vs UAE:

Ireland: 420 for 3 in 94 overs (Ed Joyce 229*, PR Stirling 146; M Naveed 1/58) vs UAE

Scotland vs Afghanistan: The 1st day’s play of the other fixture in the ongoing ICC I-Cup between Scotland and Afghanistan at Stirling got washed out due to a wet playing area.