Foakes Guides England To Nervy Win

A knock of 61 from debutant Ben Foakes helped England to a four-wicket victory over Ireland in Friday’s One-Day International in Dublin. England handed debuts to Foakes, Jofra Archer and Dawid Malan for the one-off international and, after rain had delayed the start of play, the visitors won the toss and opted to bowl first.

Ireland initially made a promising start to their innings, with openers William Porterfield and Paul Stirling putting on an opening stand of 55, but when the latter was caught by Archer off the bowling of Tom Curran for 33, the wickets started to fall at a regular rate.

The hosts were eventually bowled out for 198, with Liam Plunkett finishing as the pick of the England bowlers with figures of 4-35, while there was also a debut wicket for Archer, who bowled Mark Adair for 32. In response, England’s top order struggled and they looked in real danger of suffering defeat when they slipped to 101-6, with Ireland pace bowler Josh Little taking four of those wickets.

However, Foakes was then joined at the crease by Curran (47no), who had also taken three wickets with the ball, and the duo put on an unbeaten stand of 98 to steer England to victory, with Curran sealing the win in style with a boundary.

It was Surrey wicket-keeper Foakes who was named man of the match on his ODI debut, having taken two catches and a stumping in the field, and he admitted after the contest that both teams had to battle through difficult batting conditions. “It was tricky conditions,” Foakes said.

“You expect that coming here but it was nipping about a little bit and with their sort of bowlers it was hard to get away so we just had to take what was on offer. “It was a very slow pitch with everything sticking in; it was tough, tough work at times. Because we bowled so well and kept them under 200 the run-rate never got away from us.”