England is hosting Ireland for a series of ODI matches. This is tentatively the last match that England will play before the ODI World Cup, except for warm-ups. Ireland, however, are looking at it as an opportunity to prove that they should have been in the global tournament. The 3-ODI series starts on September 20, 2023, at Headingley Carnegie.
Paul Stirling will lead Ireland, and Zak Crawley will lead England. Visitors are coming with a packed team whose batting order could be first played by Andrew Balbirnie. England have Joe Root, but that seems to be it for them. Many other players are venturing onto the field with great enthusiasm and hope of making it to the future, playing 11 for the English team.
England has the required momentum, winning the ODI series versus New Zealand by 3-1. The only match they lost was the opening contest. During New Zealand’s chase, Devon Conway struck an unbeaten 111 runs off 121 balls to earn the Player of the Match award. He was perfectly complemented by Daryl Mitchell, who scored 118 runs off 91 balls without losing his team’s position until the end of the game.
England bounced back pretty hard, evident from the fact that they did not lose a single match after that. The last two victories came with a broader margin of 181 runs and 100 runs.
In other words, Ireland must be wary of the bowling attack they bring with them. Chris Woakes and Liam Livingstone have paved the way for other bowlers, particularly when it comes to dismantling the top and middle order of a formidable opposition.
Ireland is playing cricket after a long time. Their last meeting was with India in a shorter format, which is T20. It was a 3-match series where the last one was abandoned, and the visitors clinched the first two events. Odds on best online cricket betting sites favor England, but they may want to keep an open mind and incline toward Ireland for a while.
The matches against India were so competitive that the first Twenty20 concluded on a tense note. The DLS method gave India the victory by only 2 runs. Craig Young took two wickets, including the in-form Yashasvi Jaiswal and the long-distance runner Tilak Varma. Ruturaj Gaikwad’s shots were ultimately instrumental in securing the triumph.
Jasprit Bumrah led the side, and Paul sat in the captaincy seat. He is again comfortable in the position, except that his men are against the 5th-ranked team this time, per the ICC website at the time of writing this article.
The remaining matches between England and Ireland will be played on September 23, 2023, and September 26, 2023, at Trent Bridge and Gloucestershire Cricket Stadium respectively.
A possibility is that England will win the series by 3-0 or 2-1 if visitors decide to shoot up their efforts to the best of their capabilities.
