England given scare by Ireland

England (203-9) bt Ireland (113-9) by three runs DL

Four days after regaining the Ashes and being feted by the Prime Minister, England were given a scare by Ireland.

Four days after taking the wicket that won the Ashes, Graeme Swann was hit about club ground in Ulster by part-time cricketers. Four days after ending a Test match in which he scored a hundred on his debut, Jonathan Trott was dismissed for a duck by an Irish bowler born in Australia. Four days after being cheered by 23,000 at the Oval, England were slow hand clapped and booed by the Irish. It is no wonder they approached this trip with a degree of reluctance.

They were almost set up nicely. A low, slow pitch and soggy outfield provided the perfect conditions for the humbling of international batsmen who like to play their shots.

Only one England player truly coped and he was making his debut. Joe Denly provided encouragement for the future with an innings of patient accumulation worth 67 off 111 balls. Tall and an elegant driver of the ball, there is a passing resemblance to Michael Vaughan and Denly made a strong case for keeping his place when Andrew Strauss returns from his min-break next week for the one-day series against Australia.

The man who may once again have to drop out the team could be Ravi Bopara. A duck and more troubles outside off stump leaves him needing a score of some sort in the Twenty20 internationals.

Bopara was part of an early innings slump inspired by an Australian backlash we knew wouldn’t take long to arrive. The surprise was that it was delivered by a bowler born in Wollongong, New South Wales but wearing the green of Ireland. Trent Johnston opened the bowling with Brett Lee on his first-class debut for New South Wales a decade ago but emigrated to Ireland and was yesterday playing his 100th match for his adopted country.

On the eve of the game he promised to get “his own back”. Four for 26 was not a bad way to live up to his word. A briskish medium pace, Johnston’s cutters had Bopara driving outside off stump and caught at slip in the third over. Trott was then pinned by a ball that nibbled back into him and England were 6 for 2 and with their feet already hovering over a banana skin.

Matt Prior hit Kevin O’Brien for successive fours before holing out to long leg and Collingwood, a man who needs runs was soon out top-edging a smear over midwicket. The run rate rarely moved above a sedate three an over and even though Denly marked his international career with a half century England needed some late boundary blows from Luke Wright to limp past 200.

A lengthy rain delay between the innings made the booking of cricket-themed pop group, the Duckworth-Lewis Method, an entirely apt move although the irony was their set was cut short by the weather.

Play resumed at 5.35pm, one minute before the cut off time, and the target 116 in 20 overs, would normally be a given in a Twenty20 match.

With Paul Stirling, a promising 18-year-old who has played for Middlesex seconds, and the O’Brien brothers whacking Swann and Ryan Sidebottom to the boundary, Ireland were in a powerful position but perhaps they started to believe too much in the result.

Niall O’Brien slapped Tim Bresnan to point and Kevin O’Brien was lbw to Collingwood before Stirling popped a leg break from Adil Rashid straight back to the bowler as Ireland’s middle order fell away. But Johnston made it close with a four off the final ball that made England very grateful to Eoin Morgan’s athletic stop on the boundary to the previous delivery which saved a six and, as it turned out, the match.