Hobart: Ireland defeated two-time former champions West Indies by 9 wickets on Friday here in the ICC Men's T20 World Cup.
Ireland beat West Indies by nine wickets to knock them out of ICC T20 World Cup 2022#T20WorldCup #Ireland #WestIndies pic.twitter.com/4rbgPEnd6x
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Explosive batter Paul Stirling remained unbeaten and played a match-winning knock of 66 runs from 48 deliveries to knock the West Indies out of the T20 World Cup 2022.
Chasing the target, Ireland went hell for leather from the beginning and scored 64 runs from their powerplay overs. Stirling and Andrew Balbirnie opened the inning for Ireland and took a liking to the West Indian bowlers clobbering them all over the park.
Akeal Hosein, who was smashed for 16 runs in his first over came back in the eighth over to dismiss the Irish captain Balbirnie for 37 off 23 balls. The batter made sure that his team got off to a flier and stitched a 73-run first-wicket partnership before walking back to the pavilion.
West Indies could only manage the Ireland captain's wicket in the entire inning.
Lorcan Tucker walked in at number three and went about in the same fashion as his captain taking apart the West Indian bowlers.
Sterling continued his merry way to notch up his half-century in the 12th over off just 32 balls.
Tucker was caught out of Odean Smith in the same over but was called back as Smith had overstepped giving the batter a reprieve.
Things worsened for the West Indies as both the batter looked to score freely and ensured that the Indies never came back in the match.
Earlier, the West Indies set a below-par chase for Ireland after Brandon King anchored the innings to take his team to 146 in the do-or-die situation for the Caribbean team. (with ANI inputs)