Ireland dugout in shock after losing thriller of a match against New Zealand

Home team Ireland and New Zealand were involved in a thriller of a match after the visitors won the contest by just one run and sealed the series 3-0. Chasing 361 to win, Paul Stirling and Harry Tector stroked excellent centuries as Ireland required ten runs in the last over.

It all came down to the wire as Ireland required three runs to win in the last ball as pacer Blair Tickner held his nerves and conceded a bye off the final delivery of the match and secured the game for the Black Caps. Talking about the last delivery, Tickner was bowling to Graham Hume as the right-arm pacer bowled a slower delivery outside off stump which was missed by the batter as the batting duo could only steal a single on the last delivery handing victory to the Kiwi side by just one run.

Ireland dugout was left disappointed with the loss

Earlier in the match, Martin Guptill scored an excellent hundred. Left-handed batter Henry Nicholls and Glenn Phillips also played some crucial knocks and the Kiwis posted a huge total of 360 runs in their allotted 50 overs. In reply, Stirling and Tector were the only two Irish batters to make big contributions with the bat. Skipper Andrew Balbirnie was also sent back for a duck. George Dockrell also played well with his 22 runs.

Visiting team skipper Tom Latham also acknowledged home team efforts throughout the match. “The games have been fantastic. From the first game to today, full credit to the groundsman for producing a wicket like that. The pitch was pretty hard in the morning when we came out to bat, but Ireland batted equally well, credit to them. Really happy with how the guys responded after that Ireland batting effort,” Latham said during the post-match presentation.

Ireland’s skipper praised Harry Tector for his batting efforts, “It was an amazing game, I think we did pretty well. It (lost games) has been a bitter pill to swallow. Those were two of the better hundreds in Irish jerseys and put us in a better position. Outstanding, he (Tector) can be proud of his effort, two hundreds in one week,” Balbirnie said.