“It was pretty challenging”: Ireland coach on facing Indian bowling line-up at New York stadium

A half-century by skipper Rohit Sharma, fine finishing by Rishabh Pant and scorching spells by Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah were the highlights as India started their ICC T20 World Cup campaign on a winning note by thrashing Ireland by eight wickets.

The wicketkeeper-batter Pant’s bat produced the winning shot in the end, which came on the second ball of the 13th over.

“I guess if you look at the way they bowled up front, it was obviously pretty challenging. We had to change our game plan a couple of times and unfortunately, it just didn’t go the way we wanted it to work out today,” Malan said in the post-match press conference.

The 43-year-old further stated that the Ireland team has to be better with their execution and skills in order to win the games in the ongoing competition.

“We tried to do as much homework as we could, even though we weren’t at the ground training or playing on the surface. We spoke to the groundsman, obviously, the scores were totally different in that warm-up game that was played on that surface. So, we weren’t necessarily expecting it to behave like it did, but again, we’ve got to be better with our execution of our skills and that’s obviously something we’ll reflect on,” the coach added.

In the end, Malan said that when someone looks at T20 cricket, they only want to see runs and boundaries but that’s not the case.

“I guess when you look at T20 cricket, you want to see runs and boundaries, isn’t it? So, you can make your own conclusion whether it’s a 96 wicket. At the end of the day, you’ve got to try and do things well, whichever way you do them, whether it’s bat or ball first. We’ll obviously reassess the way we go about our business over the next 24 hours with a quick turnaround and look to be a little bit better on Friday,” the 43-year-old concluded.

Coming to the match, Indian skipper Rohit Sharma won the toss and opted to field first. The Indian bowlers put pressure on Irish batters from the start and had them struggling at 50/8. Some fightback from Gerath Delany and Joshua Little helped Ireland push the total to 96 in 16 overs.

Hardik Pandya , Arshdeep Singh , Jasprit Bumrah , Mohammed Siraj and Axar Patel put up fine bowling performances.

During the run-chase of 97 runs, a half-century from skipper Rohit Sharma and a supportive knock by Rishabh Pant helped India secure an eight-wicket win.

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