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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Sport
Vincent Whelan

Ireland fans aim hilarious jibe at England's cricketers after incredible upset at T20 World Cup

The Irish cricketers have repeated their heroics of 11 years ago by defeating England at the T20 World Cup Down Under.

Granted, the drizzly conditions helped as the Duckworth-Lewis method (a mathematical forumla used to calculate how much the second team to bat needs to score in matches interrupted or shortened by bad weather) was employed but even England captain Jos Buttler acknowledged that the 'better team won.'

It's an amazing feat for Ireland to have gotten the better of the tournament favourites and traditional cricketing superpower.

READ MORE: What is the T20 Cricket World Cup and how does it work? All you need to know after Ireland upset England

And the few Irish fans who got to witness such a milestone victory in person made sure to enjoy themselves to the enth degree as testimony by journalists covering the match can attest.

BBC reporter Matthew Henry explained in one amusing tweet. It read: "The Ireland fans at the MCG are singing "are you Scotland in disguise?" at England..."

@MatthewHenry19 (Twitter)

The reference to another near neighbour is particularly on the nose as Ireland had to beat the Scots as well as the West Indies in order to even have a shot to play against England.

That's because while 16 teams qualify for the T20 World Cup, the eight highest-ranked ones get a bye into the so-called Super 12s.

Ireland had to secure a top-two finish in the first group stage before finding themselves rubbing shoulders with the likes of England, Australia, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and Afghanistan.

They'll all play each other once with the top two from these two groups of six then advancing into the semi-finals.

As for the actual nuts and bolts behind the Irish display that toppled England, captain Andy Balbirnie’s 62 off 47 balls underpinned Ireland’s 157 all out in 19.2 overs although his dismissal was the start of a collapse that saw his side lose their last seven wickets in 24 deliveries.

But England lurched to 86 for five under heavy cloud cover and, despite a late burst of boundaries from Moeen Ali, they were still short of the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern par when the heavens opened.

The delay proved terminal as England, on 105 for five when the downpour started, slipped to a five-run defeat under the DLS method, delivering a hammer blow to their hopes of reaching the semis.

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