England and Ireland meet in the T20 World Cup 2022 Super 12 Group 1 match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Wednesday (October 26). Unsurprisingly, England began their World Cup campaign with a hard-fought win against Afghanistan in their first game. On the other hand, Ireland suffered a huge nine-wicket loss against Sri Lanka after impressive displays in the first round.
England is considered as one of the favorites to win the current tournament after dominating performances against Pakistan and Australia before the World Cup. They started well against Afghanistan restricting them to just 112 runs while bowling first. Incoming pacemaker Sam Curran took five and Ben Stokes and Mark Wood each took two wickets for England in the Afghanistan game.
But the Afghanistan bowlers put up a strong challenge and made the England batsmen sweat for victory. England won the match by five wickets, but it took 18.1 overs to reach the goal. Liam Livingstone posted an unbeaten 29 runs-on-hit from 21 balls, but the English top order largely struggled to get going against the pace of the Afghan attack. With two points in hand, England are currently in position number three in the Group 1 table.
Ireland raised the expectations of the fans after their deserved wins against the West Indies and Scotland in the First Round matches, but struggled against Sri Lanka in his first Super 12 match. Paul Stirling scored 34 runs on 25 balls and Harry Tector scored 45 runs on 42 balls, but Ireland managed to score just 128/8 while batting first.
Sri Lankan batsmen sped towards goal and won by nine wickets and 30 balls remaining at the end with Gareth Delany taking the only wicket for Ireland.
England are likely to pick up a big win against Ireland after an average performance against Afghanistan. They already lack a healthy net run rate and face strong opponents like Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka in their last three games. But Ireland will draw some positives from their last and only T20I clash against England in 2010, where they restricted their opponents to just 120 runs before rain swept victory out of their hands.
Plot conditions:
The Melbourne Cricket Ground pitch has a balanced surface that could help both batsmen and cue ball cricketers. In the last match here, the surface was hard and there was a bit of grass, which clearly helped the pacers with the new ball. So fans can witness another riveting bat-and-ball clash on Wednesday.
Game combinations for ENG vs IRE:
England:
England made a surprise change to their starting XI for the Afghanistan clash. Harry Brook was selected in place of the fourth step specialist option. But the management are likely to stick with the same starting XI with Ben Stokes proving excellent on the ball of late.
Expected Game XI: Jos Buttler (cy week), Alex Hales, Dawid Malan, Ben Stokes, Liam Livingstone, Harry Brook, Moeen Ali, Sam Curran, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood, Adil Rashid.
Ireland:
Ireland’s management made no changes to their starting XI and also followed a similar order of play to the one they used in the First Round, against Sri Lanka in the last match. There are no signs of immediate concerns, so Andy Balbirnie and company. he is likely to field the same XI against mighty England.
Expected Game XI: Paul Stirling, Andy Balbirnie (c), Lorcan Tucker (week), Harry Tector, Curtis Campher, George Dockrell, Gareth Delany, Mark Adair, Simi Singh, Barry McCarthy, Josh Little.
ENG vs IRE Head to Head:
Played- 01 | ESP-00 | IRE-00 | NR-01
ENG vs IRE broadcast details:
Match schedules: 9:30 a.m.
TV: star sports
Transmission: Hot Disney+ Star
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