Bowlers, Khawaja lead rout of Ireland
Ireland's highest score in five meetings against Australia was not enough to even mildly challenge the top-ranked ODI side, who eased to victory with 19.5 overs to spare in a chase of 199
Ireland's highest score in five meetings against Australia was not enough to even mildly challenge the top-ranked ODI side, who eased to victory with 19.5 overs to spare in a chase of 199
4.10pm With that scrambled clip into the legside, Australia complete a nine wicket win with 119 balls remaining. A comprehensive win, which was never really in doubt once both Warner and Khawaja put on 73 for the first wicket. Ireland weren't threatening enough with the ball, they just couldn't stop the batsmen from scoring. Sure, dropped catches did not help their cause.
At the top level you have to take every chance that comes along and once again Ireland didn't do that today. For Australia this was a perfect start of their South Africa tour, all of their bowlers took wickets and all top order fired. What more could you ask for? Presentations coming up. Do stick with us
William Porterfield, Ireland captain: "We got off to a great start but to lose three wickets in 8-10 balls isn't ideal. So its obvious that we didn't get enough runs. The wicket was a little bit up and down and when we lost our way in the middle of the innings it meant that we weren't going to be able to come back from that against good sides. We feel that we have done a lot of good things in today's game, we need to be kicking on from 20s, 30s and 40s. That shows where we need to go on from now. We don't have anymore international cricket this side of Christmas and so we are going home to practice for our tour of India, when we are playing Afghanistan in Feb-March. That's our next major cricket"
Steven Smith, Australia captain: "Pretty good performance in the end, the way that we started with the ball, let them away just a little bit too early and to bowl them out for just under 200 was good. No excuses, we gave too many freebies at the start and we need to work on this before we face South Africa. They wont let us back into the game as easily as Ireland did. We need to continue to improve at the front and take wickets in the middle, just like we did today. I'm happy at the way that Zampa bowled today, he started off nicely and hopefully can continue this. It's an international game today and to win by nine wickets, I'm very happy with that. It's always great playing over here in South Africa and it should be a quality series against them."
Usman Khawaja, Man of the Match: "Yeah it was really good to get out there. great to have a win and it was pretty comfortable in the end.The surface was a little slow, still good though and the outfield is fast. I like playing here at altitude. We got off to a good start and it was good to watch David Warner batting from the other end."
So that brings to an end the Ireland visit to South Africa, you would think that there will need to be a lot of hard thinking to be done before they visit India in March for their series against Afghanistan. For Australia, this is only the beginning. On Friday, the five-match series starts against South Africa. So please join us then. So thanks for following our commentary today and this is Justin wishing you a goodnight. Bye
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