Deadline: May 3, 2019 at 3.15 PM IST
Venue: The Village Dublin
Pitch, scores, and conditions
The temperature will hover around 11 degrees, with dark clouds looming over. These are perfect conditions for swing bowling. Even if there is a tinge of grass on the wicket, the captains will itch to bowl first.
The average first and second innings scores read 245 and 202 respectively. The highest total registered here is 377 by Sri Lanka against Ireland, while the lowest is 82 by Ireland against Pakistan.
Probable XI for England: Jason Roy/James Vince, Joe Denly, Joe Root, David Malan, Eoin Morgan (c), James Foakes (wk), Chris Jordan, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, David Willey, Mark Wood/Liam Plunkett
There are injury concerns for Roy. If he isn’t fit to play, Vince will replace him at the top.
Probable XI for Ireland: William Porterfield (c), Paul Stirling, Andy Balbirnie, Kevin O’Brien, George Dockrell, Josh Little, Gary Wilson (wk), Andy McBrine, Stuart Thompson, Boyd Rankin, Tim Murtagh
Fantasy team
We have opted for a fantasy cricket team on the basis of players’ impact, recent performances, and credit points.
Note that you can, now, change your team after the toss. You can also check players’ performances in the last 5 matches. Tap on the players’ names to get the data while making your fantasy team.
My XI: Ben Foakes (wk), Joe Root, Kevin O’Brien, Eoin Morgan, Andy Balbirnie, Paul Stirling, George Dockrell (vc), David Willey, Adil Rashid, Andy McBrine, Jofra Archer (c)
Preview
Ireland have won 7 of their 9 matches against Ireland. The only loss they suffered came in the 2011 World Cup. Ireland, riding on O’Brien’s 113, chased down 328 runs with 2 wickets in hand and 5 deliveries remaining. It was one of those rare improbable defeats that England are time and again reminded of.
Ireland, however, will not meet England in the upcoming World Cup. ICC decided to limit the tournament to only 10 teams, and Ireland, as fate would have it, failed in the qualifiers against the likes of West Indies and Afghanistan. They will now take whatever comes their way, and the first task will to be upset England.
Nonetheless, the result of this match will not affect England significantly. They have rested few of their key players in order to test their bench strength. All eyes, thus, will be on Archer, who was ignored from the preliminary World Cup squad. Many fans, who have been observing Archer in domestic leagues across the world, were disappointed with the omission. In the ongoing IPL, he took 11 wickets in as many matches, along with finishing games with his batting skills for Rajasthan. He will give his all to emulate a similar performance.
Another player to watch out for will be Vince. Only a week ago he smashed 190 off 154 – the highest one-day score in England for a decade – in the ongoing Royal London One-Day Cup.
For Ireland, the onus of piling runs will be on the stalwarts Balbirnie and Stirling, who were the highest run-scorers in their previous series against Afghanistan earlier this year. While Balbirnie bludgeoned 215 runs in 5 matches, Stirling accumulated 25 runs fewer.
Both teams are studded with quality all-rounders. We have witnessed Jordan, Archer, Rashid, and Willey take centre stage, but on Friday, cameras will also be on Dockrell, who took 8 wickets and scored a fifty against Afghanistan.
Also get to know the tips & tricks on how to play fantasy cricket.