Ireland vs India, 2nd T20I, Stats Preview: Players records and approaching milestones

After beating the hosts Ireland comfortably by a seven-wicket margin in the rain-curtailed first T20I, Hardik Pandya and his men will look to win the second and the final match as well which takes place on June 28, 2022, at The Village in Dublin. A victory will seal a 2-0 whitewash for the visitors who are missing a number of first-team players due to unavailability and injuries. With the recently concluded South Africa series getting drawn 2-2 (5), the Men in Blue would hope for a series win against the Irish men in their own backyard.

Talking about the first encounter, the rain delay forced the match to get reduced to 12 overs per side. The host’s top-order struggled as the first three batters fell cheaply to Indian pacers with Ireland finding themselves at 22/3. But Harry Tector then came to the rescue and registered his highest individual T20I score of 64* to take side to a total of over 100 runs. Exciting speedster Umran Malik finally made his debut but couldn’t do much as he bowled a solitary over for 14 runs with no wicket. Experienced campaigners Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Yuzvendra Chahal bowled economically to restrict the hosts to just 108/4.

Deepak Hooda, who opened the innings for the first time in T20 cricket made light work of the chase as he smashed an unbeaten 47 off 29 with the help of six fours and two maximums. Skipper Hardik played quickfire innings of 24 off 11 which included three sixes as the tourists reached the target with ease in 9.2 overs. With Ruturaj Gaikwad suffering a calf niggle and not coming out to bat, team India would look to hand a debut to Rahul Tripathi or even play Sanju Samson in the final game. Pacer Arshdeep Singh is also waiting in the wings for his maiden appearance as one of Avesh Khan or Bhuvneshwar Kumar might get a rest with both featuring in all the five matches against South Africa.

Meanwhile, here are some of the important stats and numbers ahead of the 2^nd T20I between Ireland and India:

Head-to-Head: Ireland and India have rubbed shoulders with each other in four T20Is so far with Ireland losing all four of them. In Ireland, both teams have met in three matches so far and India sealed victories in all the games.

5 – Hardik Pandya (45) needs five fours to reach 50 fours in the T20Is.

1 – Craig Young (49) is one game away from appearing in his 50^th T20I.

7 – Harry Tector (43) is seven fours away from completing 50 fours in the shortest international format.

2 – Andy McBrine (98) is just two scalps away from reaching the landmark of 100 international wickets.

4 – Dinesh Karthik (496) requires four runs to complete 500 runs in T20 internationals.

69 – Paul Stirling (7931) needs 69 runs to get to the milestone of 8000 runs in international cricket.

8 – Tector (92) needs eight fours to get to 100 fours across formats.

3 – Bhuvneshwar Kumar (65) needs three scalps to surpass Jasprit Bumrah (67) and become the second-highest wicket-taker for India in the T20Is.

71 – Andrew Balbirnie (1429) is 71 runs away from reaching 1500 runs in the T20I format.

51 – George Dockrell (449) is 51 runs away from completing 500 runs in T20 internationals.