In a must win game for both sides it was Australia who triumphed. Although there were moments of brilliance from Ireland, they were not enough to influence the end result. Rahul Patil analyses all the action from Australia.

Australia vs Ireland - Ireland won the toss and chose to field first.

Australia 179 for 5 in 20 overs (Finch 63, McCarthy 3/29, Little 2/21) beat Ireland 137 all out in 18.1 overs (Lorcan Tucker 71*, Zampa 2/19, Cummins 2/28) by 42 runs.

Sometimes the margin of victory in a cricket match does not tell you the full story and Sunday night (Cook Islands time) at The Gabba was no different. Australia won by 42 runs but it wasn’t as comfortable as the scoreboard suggests.

The form of Aaron Finch or the lack of it has been widely discussed for a while now but it was largely due to his innings that Australia managed to get to 179. He still struggled initially but didn’t throw it away and as time went by he found both, his touch and power game. He was lucky though that batters at the other end kept the scoreboard moving to take some of the pressure off him.

Ireland’s run chase started in disastrous fashion. A combination of poor shot selection and good bowling by the Aussies had them reeling at 25 for 5 in 4 overs. At that stage it looked like Australia would register a massive win and wipe out their net run rate deficit. But Dublin born wicketkeeper/batter Lorcan Tucker lit up The Gabba with a great display of grit, determination and brilliant stroke play. His effort of 71 not out in 48 balls was remarkable considering it was a lone hand while wickets tumbled around him. Although it wasn’t enough to win the game for his side it did reduce the margin of Australia’s victory considerably and a couple of the other teams in the tournament will thank Tucker for it.

Group 1                      Mat     Won    Lost     Tied    NR      Pts       NRR  

New Zealand               3          2          0          0          1          5          +3.850

Australia                      4          2          1          0          1          5          -0.304 

England                       3          1          1          0          1          3          +0.239

Ireland                         4          1          2          0          1          3          -1.544 

Afghanistan                3          0          1          0          2          2          -0.620 

Sri Lanka                    3          1          2          0          0          2          -0.890 

Group 2                      Mat     Won    Lost     Tied    NR      Pts       NRR  

South Africa                3          2          0          0          1          5          +2.772

India                            3          2          1          0          0          4          +0.844

Bangladesh                 3          2          1          0          0          4          -1.533 

Zimbabwe                   3          1          1          0          1          3          -0.050 

Pakistan                       3          1          2          0          0          2          +0.765

Netherlands                 3          0          3          0          0          0          -1.948

• As of 4pm yesterday 31.10.2022