Eng vs Ire – 1st ODI (30/07/2020)

Welcome to the 2020-22 ICC Cricket World Cup Super League!!
The first series of this Super League is going to be held between England, who have come up with a completely different team than the one that recently won the test series against the Windies due to the covid protocols, and Ireland who are ready to go and are excited to be part of the first series under the scheduled Super League!

Both teams have played a few warm up matches before this battle and it will be interesting since both teams are geared up for this encounter, to be held tomorrow, i.e., on 30th July 2020!

Probable XIs

Eng – Jason Roy, Johnny Bairstow (Wk), James Vince, Joe Denly, Eoin Morgan (C), Moeen Ali, Liam Dawson, Tom Curran, David Willey, Adil Rashid, Saqib Mahmood/Reece Topley

On Bench – Tom Banton, Reece Topley/Saqib Mahmood, Sam Billings.

Reserves – Lewis Gregory, Liam Livingstone, Richard Gleeson

Ire – Paul Stirling, Gareth Delany, William Porterfield, Andrew Balbirnie (C), Lorcan Tucker (Wk), Kevin O’Brien, Simi Singh, Andy McBrine, Boyd Rankin, Barry McCarthy, Craig Young

On Bench – Joshua Little, Curtis Campher, Harry Tector

Analysis

1. I would personally prefer Curtis Campher to play over Gareth Delany on the basis of the warm up matches they’ve played and open with Porterfield and bring Campher in the middle order. He’s a reliable bowler as well as a handy batsman, but somehow the team’s preference might be Delany.
2. Joe Denly has been specially called for this ODI series after being replaced by Joe Root in the test squad after the first game itself, so him being called out of the blue without even playing any warm-up matches might just give him that edge to be in the XI above Tom Banton.
3. It’s a toss-up betwen Craig Young and Joshua Little for the 11th spot in the team but somehow Young has been better than Little in the recently concluded warm up matches so he might be given the chance to play before the latter.
4. Reece Topley has been given a chance to play for England after 4 years of struggle and even though he should be looking forward to being in the playing XI, Saqib Mahmood might have a better chance than him to make it to the XI, unless and until both of them are played and Liam Dawson makes way.
5. England holds a convincing edge over Ireland in ODIs, with eight wins in nine completed fixtures. Their only defeat against the Irish came during the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, India. Both the sides have never faced each other at the Rose Bowl in Southampton.

Pitch Report

The overall pitch will be a balanced one with a slighter advantage to seamers than the spinners. So, even though both teams will go with around 2-3 spinners each in their XIs, the seamers might play a more important role on this pitch in terms of maintaining the pressure on the batsmen, but the wickets might end up with spinners.

Avg first innings score on the basis of the last 5 matches is 240, and avg score (inclusive of both innings) is 181.

Weather Report

It’s going to be a clear sky throughout with no chances of rain, and should be a great day for a game of cricket!

Prediction

England would win the match and the players to look out for would be Johnny Bairstow, Moeen Ali, Paul Stirling and Andrew Balbirnie