India post an easy win by CricketArchive Staff Reporter

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Scorecard:	India v Ireland
Player:	AR White, PP Ojha, G Gambhir, RG Sharma, Z Khan
Event:	ICC World Twenty20 2009

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DateLine: 10th June 2009

 

Rohit Sharma scored a fluent half-century as India made short work of the moderate Irish total to win by eight wickets in the last first-round game.

 

Sharma and Gautam Gambhir shared a 77-run opening stand which effectively sealed the game after the Irish had managed only 112 runs in a match reduced to 18 overs a side.

 

The the Ireland player, buoyed by their win over Bangladesh, had little to offer, but they still have Super Eight games to play, beginning with one against England on Thursday.

 

While Ireland were batting, all the coaches of India’s Super Eight rivals must have sat up and taken not of the death overs.

 

The bowlers, after a sensational start, suddenly lost the plot, giving away 39 runs in the last three overs, with Irfan Pathan and Harbhajan Singh being hammered, first by Andrew White, the only Irish batsman to get some runs, and then by Alex Cusack, who improvised quite well.

 

But the Irish had been hit hard at the beginning, with Zaheer Khan blasting out the top-order, and they never really got going.

 

Zaheer returned phenomenal figures of 4/19 off four overs but the rest of the medium-pace attack could well be tested by stronger line-ups.

 

Pragyan Ojha too had a good outing, claiming two wickets for 18 runs off four overs, including one off his very first delivery, but Harbhajan and Irfan had pretty unimpressive outings, which could be worry for Mahendra Singh Dhoni.