Craig Young continued his magnificent bowling form, taking three wickets today to ensure Ireland defeated Bahrain in a must-win Group Stage match of the ICC T20 World Cup Qualifier at the Al Almerat Stadium today.
His three wickets today brings his wicket tally to 11 in his last four matches on this tour, at an average of 9.01. Combined with his three three-wicket hauls against West Indies in the ODI series last month, it brings to 20 his international wicket tally in 2022 so far, equalling his wicket tally in the whole of 2021.
Young's fellow North West Warriors teammate Andy McBrine also delivered an influential spell, taking 1-19 from his four overs – his wicket being his 100th international wicket for Ireland across all formats.
Despite a positive start chasing 159 to win, the Bahrain batting unit never recovered from losing those first three wickets to Young. Muhammad Younis (30) and David Mathias (28) – and a late cameo by Veerapathiran Sathaiya of 33* from 14 balls - injected runs into the final total, but from the 9th over of the run chase the Irish felt in control.
Bahrain finished on 137-5 from their 20 overs, handing Ireland a crucial 21-run win.
Earlier in the day Irish skipper Andrew Balbirnie won the toss and decided to bat first, noting at the toss that runs on the board were crucial.
Balbirnie and Paul Stirling started positively, moving swiftly to 60 from the first eight overs without losing a wicket.
The captain struck four boundaries, including a six, in his knock of 33 from 25 balls before falling to an outfield catch. Stirling – unusually quiet at the other end – fell shortly after for 32 from 35 balls, pushing a slow ball from wrist-spinner Junaid Aziz back to the bowler who safely claimed the return catch.
Then a familiar trend set in – the Irish middle order stuttered, losing wickets and the run rate began to drop. When George Dockrell – in his 250th match for Ireland (all formats) - came to the crease in the 16th over, Ireland were 100-4 and the 'in’ batter Gareth Delany was striking at only just over a run-a-ball.
However, the Leinster Lightning captain began a counter-attack in the last five overs – he struck two sixes and a four in an innings of 24 from 11 balls to propel Ireland to over the 150-mark.
Delany also sensed this change in scoring momentum and began to swing through the line of the ball more freely. He struck three maximums and a boundary in his third T20I half-century, finishing 51* from 34 balls – Delany’s fifty coming up off the last ball of the innings.
Ireland’s 158-5 from 20 overs looked slightly below par, but the final burst of 58 from the last five overs gave the Irish bowlers a target they had a chance of defending.
Commenting afterwards, captain Balbirnie hailed the trio of Delany, Dockerell and Young.
"A tough test today, we had to fight and scrap – Gareth Delany and George Dockrell did that with the bat to probably get us into a winning position. It was a slow enough wicket and it was hard to take 10 wickets, so we had to restrict them and bowl tight lines, which I thought we did pretty well.
"Craig Young has been bowling brilliantly for a couple of years for us and he's really taken on that senior bowling role mantle, he was really good again today, as were most of our bowlers."
