Ireland go down at Lord’s but not without a fierce fight

4. Dot. 4. 4. Four balls is all it took for Zak Crawley in the second innings to power England to a win in the one-off Test against Ireland at Lord’s. What seemed like an obvious conclusion more than 24 hours back eventually stretched more than expected courtesy a record 163-run stand between Mark Adair and Andy McBrine, both of whom missed out on their respective centuries but effectively ensured that Ireland’s first innings deficit was wiped off with a counterattacking approach.

The duo came out to bat with the visitors reeling at 162 for 6 – with opener James McCollum already retired hurt – and still trailing by 191 runs. With a big loss expected on the cards, the duo threw their bats around. It began with them taking the bait offered by Joe Root’s loopy offbreaks. McBrine drove him through covers for a couple of boundaries and Adair followed it up by slogging him for a six through the mid wicket region.

While McBrine remained the more conservative of the two, Adair used his power to good effect against Root. He swept him for a boundary and took him apart even in the next over, smashing Root for 15 runs – all swiped through the leg side. He dished out a similar treatment to Jack Leach in the post Lunch period. With England looking to end Ireland’s innings soon, they kept offering the bait to the Irish batters, but in turn the visitors picked quick runs. Even the odd attempts of putting them on the backfoot with bouncers backfired, as McBrine and Adair pulled Josh Tongue and Stuart Broad respectively for boundaries.

In fact, Adair creamed Broad for three successive boundaries, with a pull, a leg glance and a drive en route his half-century, which took only 47 balls. He held back against no one – Broad, Potts, Leach and Root faced the brunt of his power slogs. McBrine, who was fairly more cautious with his strokeplay, brought up his fifty with by reverse sweeping Leach for a boundary.

While the short-ball ploy proved quite expensive for England, it eventually brought about Adair’s downfall. Looking to pull Potts, he got an edge to the ‘keeper on 88. With only two more wickets left, England pushed to pick the last two wickets. However, McBrine, Fionn Hand and Graham Hume kept them at bay for more than 16 overs, even forcing the umpires to take Tea despite a half-hour extension in play in the second session.

Hand fell just before Tea, edging a drive off Tongue to Crawley at slips – handing the debutant a fifer on debut. Broad cleaned up Hume in the second over after Tea to end Ireland’s resistance, with McBrine unbeaten on 86 – his second Test fifty.

Earlier in the day, Lorcan Tucker and Harry Tector steadied the visitors in the morning, extending the fourth wicket stand to 63 runs. Before Tucker’s attempt to sweep Jack Leach backfired. The ball hit his gloves and rolled to hit the stumps, dismissing him six short of a half-century.

The duo had looked steady even though they were slow to get going. Tucker hit four boundaries in the first half an hour of play, even though one caught the outside edge of his bat and flew through the slip cordon.

Tector, who was the slower of the two, continued to remain on the defensive even in the company of Curtis Campher, who broke free after a steady start. He slogged Joe Root for a six through mid wicket and drove Josh Tongue for two successive boundaries through the point region in the next over. Tector brought up his half century with a two but fell off the next over, uppishly cutting Tongue to backward point to hand the debutant his fourth wicket of the innings. Three balls later, Campher swept Root to Ben Stokes to end his stay.

Brief Scores: Ireland 172 (James McCollum 36, Curtis Campher 33; Stuart Broad 5-51, Jack Leach 2-35) & 362/9 (Mark Adair 88, Andy McBrine 86*; Josh Tongue 4-66) lost to England 524/4 decl. (Ollie Pope 205, Ben Duckett 182; Andy McBrine 2-99) & 12 for no loss by 10 wickets

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