IND vs IRE 1st T20: India dismantle the hosts by 76 runs

India started the first leg of their UK tour on a winning note against Ireland as they defeated the hosts by 76 runs while playing their 100th T20I match on Wednesday.

The openers Rohit Sharma (97 off 61 balls) and Shikhar Dhawan (74 off 45 balls) stitched a partnership of 160 runs to help India post a massive total of 208 for five.

Ireland in reply could only manage to score 132/9 in their 20 overs before succumbing to the bowling attack of India.

Peter Chase picked four wickets for Ireland as he finished with career-best figures of 4 for 35 with a memorable 20th over in which he dismissed Mahendra Singh Dhoni (11), Rohit Sharma (97) and skipper Virat Kohli (0).

But, Ireland failed to find their momentum as none of their batsmen could build up the innings for Ireland. They found it difficult to deal with Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav.

The minnows had no answers of Kuldeep’s spells who ran through their middle-order, picking up Simi Singh, top-scorer James Shannon and SW Poynter.

India didn’t just comfortably win the match but also registered many records to its name as well:

• Rohit Sharma became the tenth Indian player to score more than 10,000 runs in international cricket for his national side.
• Shikhar Dhawan became 6th player to complete 6000 runs in T20 cricket.
• Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan are the only openers to stitch a partnership of more than 150 runs twice in T20 cricket.
• Indian cricket team posted a total of more than 200 runs for the 10th time in a T20I match and have equalled the record of Australia. They are now only behind South Africa who have crossed the 200 runs 11 times.
• Raina and Dhoni were part of India’s maiden T20 match and also played the 100th T20I for India yesterday.

Brief Scores:

India- 208/5

Rohit Sharma- 97 runs (61 balls)

Shikhar Dhawan- 74 (45 balls)

Kuldeep Yadav – 4/21

Yuzvendra Chahal- 3/38

Ireland:

James Shannon- 60 (35 balls)

Stuart Thompson- 12 (8 balls)

Peter Chase- 4/35

Kevin O Brien- 36/1