Twitter Reactions: India trump Ireland by two runs via DLS method in rain-marred first T20I

The much-awaited Ireland vs India T20I series began on Friday, August 18 as the two teams locked horns in the first game of the three-match series at The Village in Dublin. Fast Bowler Jasprit Bumrah finally made his comeback after 11 months as he walked out for the toss as the Indian captain and elected to bowl first.

Bumrah wasted no time in announcing his comeback as he dismantled Andrew Balbirnie’s timber on the very second delivery of the innings. He further dismissed Lorcan Tucker in the same over whose mistimed ramp shot fell into the gloves of Sanju Samson to leave Ireland on 4/2 after the first over. Prasidh Krishna, who was also making a comeback after one year, got himself amongst the wickets by dismissing Harry Tector.

He further dismissed George Dockrell in the seventh over to send half of the Irish side back into the pavilion with just 31 runs on the board. Wrist spinner Ravi Bishnoi also joined the party as he first bamboozled Ireland captain Paul Stirling (11 off 11) with a wrong-un and later trapped Mark Adair in front of the stumps to leave Ireland reeling at 59/6.

A 57-run stand between Curtis Campher (39 off 33) and Barr McCarthy took Ireland past 100. McCarthy carried his innings forward and helped his side finish on 139/7 with his splendid half-century (51* off 33). Bishnoi (2/23), Krishna (2/32) and Jasprit Bumrah (2/24) picked up two wickets each for India.

In reply, India got off to a decent start with openers Yashasvi Jaiswal (24 off 23) and Ruturaj Gaikwad adding 46 runs for the wicket of 38 balls. However, Craig Young brought Ireland back into the game by dismissing Jaiswal and Tilak Varma (0) on back-to-back deliveries.

Rain interruption handed India a two-run victory on DLS

Just when the match was set up nicely, heavens opened the gates and rain came pouring down to interrupt the game much to the fans’ dismay. Fortunately for India fans, India were two runs ahead of the DLS par score and hence were awarded the game when no further play could be possible. As a result, the Jasprit Bumrah-led side went 1-0 up in the series with two games remaining.

Meanwhile, X was abuzz with reactions on India’s narrow win.

Here are some of the posts: