Ireland, South Africa hope to improve Super League standings
Overview
The Village, Dublin
11 July; 10:45am local time, 09:45 GMT
In the first ODI of the series, Ireland displayed toughness and adaptability with opener William Porterfield and captain Andy Balbirnie scoring clinical half-centuries against an intimidating South African bowling attack.
The match, unfortunately, had to be called off due to rain but despite that the hosts were able to showcase that their improved Ireland batting line-up can face the likes of Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, and Tabraiz Shamsi confidently.
Remember the last time
Ireland, batting first, put up 195/4 in the 40.2 overs that they were able to bat. Porterfield’s 87-ball 63 and Balbirnie’s 65 off 79 balls had laid a strong foundation to make it challenging for South Africa to chase in the windy conditions of Dublin. But the weather had different plans, rain interrupted the play twice before the match was officially called off.
The first ODI between Ireland and South Africa in Malahide has been abandoned due to persistent rain 🌧️
— ICC (@ICC) July 11, 2021
📸 @cricketireland #IREvSA pic.twitter.com/G7XmxcODpQ
The two teams shared five ICC Cricket World Cup Super League points each which took South Africa from the bottom to the 11th place in the standings, while Ireland are on the ninth spot.
What they said:
Andrew Balbirnie (Ireland captain):“We are pretty happy with the performance. Our batting wasn’t great in the Netherlands recently so to get some time in the middle for the few of us and play quite nicely was great and hopefully, we can build on that for the rest of the series.”
