12-over game India 111 for 3 (Hooda 47*, Kishan 26, Young 2-18) beat Ireland 108 for 4 (Tector 64, Chahal 1-11, Bhuvneshwar 1-16) by seven wickets
A greenish Malahide lane that offered both swing and seam was right up the alley of Bhuvneshwar Kumar. After taking one away from Andy Balbirnie, Bhuvneshwar ripped an inswinger that hit the top of the Irish captain’s stump and sent him to a duck.
Bhuvneshwar then greeted Gareth Delany No. 3 with a sharper inswinger that pinged the pad, but it did too much to threaten the stumps. Bhuvneshwar’s two overs in a shortened four-over power play cost only two runs.
Tector illuminates Malahide
Despite wickets falling around him, Tector once again showed why he is one of the most exciting young batters in Irish cricket. He had started 2022 with three consecutive half-centuries in the Caribbean in ODI cricket and now he showed he could also compete in T20Is against India’s IPL superstars.
Tector settled into Axar Patel’s finger-spin on his left arm and pulled him back to back through the covers. In all, twenty-nine of his 64 runs came through and over that region.
Malik marked his arrival with a lightning bolt from 148 kph, but his only remaining on the night was 18 runs. He made a mistake with both his lines and lengths and Tector got a chance to both drive and hook the bowler for limits.
Tector pushed on to pick up his half-century of 29 balls and in the last over of the innings, he daringly kicked Avesh four times. However, there wasn’t enough support from the rest of Ireland’s batters, who could only get 34 of 39 balls together at a stroke rate of 87.17.
Hooda opens, Hardik at No.4
India shook things up by pushing Hooda to the top along with Kishan instead of Ruturaj Gaikwad. While Kishan hit three fours and two sixes in 11 balls, Hooda mourned for 5 out of 7 before picking up the pace to finish with an unbeaten 47 out of 29.
He advanced on offspinner Andy McBrine and launched him for six and in the next over, debutant Conor Olphert kicked the same region for another six. He forged a 64-run third-wicket stand with Hardik, who basked his way into a No. 4 12-ball 24.
After taking a slice of Kishan in the early exchanges, left arm sailor Josh Little bounced back to trap Hardik lbw. Hooda and Karthik, however, closed the game coolly to put India at 1-0.