Ireland v/s New Zealand, 5th Match, Review: New Zealand romp to 190-run win against hosts

Running high on stand-in captain Tom Latham’s third ODI hundred, New Zealand won by 190 runs against Ireland in a very professional performance. Their preparations for the ICC Champions Trophy is on the right track as the Kiwis have won three straight games in the ongoing tri-series with Bangladesh being the third team.

Ireland put New Zealand in first after winning the toss at the Malahide Cricket Club Ground in Malahide, Dublin. Skipper Latham and Ronchi were involved in a brisk partnership of 70 for the first wicket before Ronchi was sent back by Craig Young. The New Zealand innings from then on revolved around Latham who batted beautifully to record his hundred off 109 balls in the 36th over. He, though, was dismissed two balls later for 104. Latham had a lucky reprieve when he was caught off a no-ball on a score of 89.

Latham was given good company, first by Neil Broom and then by the experienced Ross Taylor. Broom made 38 before he chipped one to mid-off off the bowling Ed Joyce. He added 75 runs for the second wicket with his skipper. Taylor helped himself to his 35th ODI half-century before he lost his wicket in quest of quick runs in the 46th over for a well made 57 which came off 64 balls. The Taylor-Latham combination added 77 runs in good time to lay a solid foundation for New Zealand to launch an attack in the back end of the innings.

Barrage of boundaries at the end

Santner and Colin Munro then helped New Zealand to propel to 344 as they plundered 76 runs in the last five overs. Munro was the real star of that show as he smashed 44 runs which came off just 15 balls. His innings gave the Kiwi innings the right impetus as he clobbered the inexperienced Irish bowling. All-rounder Santner remained unbeaten on 20 off 9 as New Zealand ensured that Ireland is out of the game at the halfway point.

It was a question of putting the ball in the right areas and wait for Ireland to make the errors. Sharing the new ball with fast bowler Adam Milne, Matt Henry struck in his second over dismissing Paul Stirling for his 7th duck in 82 innings at the international level. The experience of Ed Joyce and finesse of skipper Porterfield took the hosts score past 50 before the former chased a wide delivery from Corey Anderson to only get an edge which was taken neatly by keeper Ronchi. From then on, the Kiwis took wickets at regular intervals. The Ireland batsmen had no answer to some disciplined bowling by the experienced bowlers of New Zealand. Porterfield top-scored for his team with a brisk innings of 48 coming off 50 balls. Gary Wilson too offered some resistance but was cleaned up by Matt Henry for a personal score of 30. Henry returned with figures of 3/36. Young Scott Kuggeleijn, who made his debut last week, along with Corey Anderson ended the game with decent figures of 2/17 and 2/15 respectively.

Ireland succumb to pressure

Latham was adjudged the Man of the Match for his fine contributions with the bat. Ireland was never in the game as they were bundled out for a paltry 154 with more than 10 overs left in their innings. They need to learn more from such games as clashes with top internationals sides are far and few. Their bowlers, with the exception of Simi Singh who bowled well to finish with 0/38 in 10 overs, lacked consistency as they were taken to the cleaners by the Kiwis, especially during the slog overs.