Bhuvi, Chahal and Hooda fashion big win in rain-hit Ireland T20I

Nagging rain allowed for only 12 overs a side but Ireland and India still provided a capacity crowd at Dublin’s Malahide with some entertainment in a curtailed T20I with the visitors winning by seven wickets with 16 balls to spare. Yuzvendra Chahal wore three sweaters to ward off the cold in a three-over spell of 1/11 after Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Hardik Pandya knocked off Ireland captain Andy Balbirnie and Paul Stirling in the first two overs. On debut, Umran Malik leaked 14 runs in the only over he got to bowl but Avesh Khan, Chahal and Kumar did well to restrict Ireland to 108/4.A calf niggle to opener Ruturaj Gaikwad meant every batter was given a promotion. Ishan Kishan gave the visitors a flying start, hitting Joshua Little for four, six and four off consecutive deliveries but Ireland hit back with successive wickets of Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav as India slipped to 30/2.Hooda, makeshift opener instead of Gaikwad, hit an unbeaten 29-ball 47 and Pandya a 12-ball 24 as India overhauled the target in 9.2 overs. The boundaries were short, the ball was seaming off the pitch and balls were flying off edges but India ticked some important boxes in a tour that will see them play one more game in Ireland before travelling to England where they are scheduled to play a full white-ball tour after the Test team plays a one-off match in Manchester.Kumar, Chahal shineFifth ball of his first over, Kumar bowled Balbirnie, knocking off his off-stump with an in-swinger that went through an exposed defence. The pitch was a little slow to begin with but with enough movement available, Kumar quickly got into rhythm and conceded just two runs in his two-overs during the four-over powerplay.“Bhuvi keeps doing the same thing over and over again but we never talk much about him. The consistency with which he has performed has been top-class,” said Pandya in a press conference after the win.Pandya gave himself the new ball ahead of Malik and straightaway got success when he induced Stirling into a lofted drive that he tried to check at the last moment. It came off as a miscue, ballooning to Hooda who pedalled back from mid-off to take a simple catch.Avesh Khan then had Delany caught behind off an inside edge but Ireland recovered well thanks to an excellent counter-attack from Harry Tector, who struck six fours and three sixes in an unbeaten 64 off 33. Khan (1/22 in two overs) got a bit of stick, as did Pandya (1/26 in two overs) and Axar Patel (0/12 in one over) but Chahal was a picture of calm amid the carnage, tossing up the ball, giving it a good rip while resorting to the googly and the quicker delivery time and again.The delivery that dismissed Lorcan Tucker was almost Test class—a tossed up delivery outside off-stump asking him to go after it. Tucker did but couldn’t clear Patel at deep square-leg. “I felt like a finger spinner today,” Chahal, Man of the Match, said after the game. “Sometimes it's hard but you have to adapt to every condition.”Hooda plays anchorNot till the third over—bowled by medium pacer Mark Adair—did Hooda get into the groove, first heaving his slower ball over midwicket for a boundary before flashing hard at a full and wide delivery that short third man for another four. But it was really after off-spinner Andy McBrine was brought into the attack that India accelerated as Hooda and Pandya hit three sixes off him over long-on in the sixth over.“Once two batters are set in a T20, it’s very difficult to stop them,” said Pandya on his 64-run stand with Hooda. “The ball was doing (something) but we made sure as a batting group we kept the intensity high.”Hooda whipped the first ball of the next over from debutant Conor Olphert over long-leg, reducing the equation to less than a run per ball after that. Finishing touches were provided in the eighth over, bowled by Little, as Hooda and Pandya milked him for 16 runs before the Indian captain was dismissed. But with only 15 runs required in the next four overs, India’s win was never in doubt.