Captain Andy Balbirnie scored a trendy century as Ireland recorded their first ever One-Day International victory over South Africa with a win by 43 runs within the second match of their three-game sequence in Malahide on Tuesday (July 13). Balbirnie stroked 102 from 117 balls as the house facet posted 290 for 5 of their 50 overs, earlier than proscribing the vacationers to 247 all out of their reply to safe the historic victory and a 1-0 lead within the sequence after Sunday’s opener was washed out.
Ireland could have the prospect to assert the sequence when the third and closing match is performed on the identical venue on Friday. “I’m extremely proud with the character we showed,” Balbirnie stated. “We knew it was a fairly robust pitch to take 10 wickets on, however the best way we caught at within the center and in direction of the loss of life was a credit score to them (the bowlers).
“It is a huge day for cricket in Ireland. We will have a couple of beers and enjoy this, but at the same time we have to look to Friday, when we could potentially win a series.”
South Africa, who once more rested key batsman Quinton de Kock, battled to maintain up with the run-rate all through and when opener Janneman Malan (84 from 96) and Rassie van der Dussen (49 from 70) fell in fast succession with the rating on 160, their probabilities of victory slipped away.
Watch highlights of Balbirnie’s good century right here…
| Relive Andy Balbirnie’s innings that performed a decisive function in how the 2nd #IREvSA ODI unfolded yesterday!
Catch the 3-match sequence LIVE, solely on #FanCode https://t.co/NhBMDC1MiN#CricketOnFanCode #IREvsSA #IREvSAonFanCode @cricketireland @OfficialCSA pic.twitter.com/Hg83F2jtCp
— FanCode (@FanCode) July 14, 2021
“Big up to Ireland, they outplayed us and showed up on the day. They really nailed down their skills with bat and ball. There is a lot for us to work on,” South Africa captain Temba Bavuma stated.
“We created chances with the ball but our fielding let us down, we set higher standards than that. The momentum was always on their side.”