Stuart Broad’s triple strike early on the opening morning left Ireland reeling at 78 for 4 at Lunch, on Thursday, at Lord’s. Paul Stirling and James McCollum steadied the innings briefly with a 45-run stand for the fourth wicket before the former fell late in the morning session.
Electing to bowl in helpful conditions, England pacers got ample movement. While McCollum was steady with his approach, Peter Moor tried to disturb their lines by shuffling across the crease, and flicking Matthew Potts for a boundary. He remained on the offensive and even straight drove a fuller delivery by Broad for a four in the next over. But his attempt to go across the line and flick eventually brought about his downfall as Broad trapped him leg-before in the fifth over of the day.
The veteran pacer then had skipper Andrew Balbirnie caught edging for a duck. He pitched it full and got some away movement that took the outside on its way to Zak Crawley at slips. Two balls later Harry Tector too fell for a duck, leg glazing a delivery on his pads to the legslip fielder, handing Broad his third wicket of the day
McCollum and Stirling, in their respective natural styles, revived Ireland’s innings briefly. Striling attacked the error in lines by the English bowlers and picked boundaries every time an opportunity presented itself. He flicked Broad’s delivery down the leg for a four and swept Jack Leach for boundary soon after to get going.
Josh Tongue, making his debut, started out with a couple of tight overs. In his third, England took a review for a caught behind of McCollum but lost it. But he continued to stray far too often thereafter and Stirling was quick to get the scoreboard moving with a flurry of boundaries. The big-hitting southpaw was eventually dismissed on a 35-ball 30 when he edged a big sweep off Leach to the ‘keeper. Lorcan Tucker and McCollum braced through the remaining 25 minutes of play without any damage and went to Lunch safely on 8 and 29 respectively.
Brief Scores: (at lunch)
Ireland
74/4 (Paul Stirling 30, James McCollum 29*; Stuart Broad 3-21)
vs
England