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Ireland vs Australia 2015, one-off ODI at Belfast: David Warner’s match-winning knock and other highlights

Steven Smith registered his first win as permanent skipper of Australia.

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David Warner top scored for Australia vs Ireland © Getty Images
David Warner top scored for Australia vs Ireland © Getty Images

In what turned out to be an exciting contest, Australia overcame a tough challenge from minnows Ireland as they beat them by 23 runs at their own backyard in a rain-marred game Belfast. Although rain-interrupted, the match had quite a few highlights that stole the show and entertained the viewers as Australia stood tall and proved why they are the reigning World Champions. Ayush Gupta takes a look at the highlights that the match produced.

Joe Burns’ healthy knock of 69: Joe Burns, who made his ODIs debut had a memorable debut as a played a fluent innings of 69 from 70 deliveries that included seven boundaries and a six.  Along with the belligerent David Warner,  Australia were on the top right from the word go.

David Warner’s match-winning knock of 84: The southpaw’s game-changing pyrotechnics are well documented and yet again, he was on a leather hunt en route to his burly knock of 84, including seven boundaries and three big sixes at 105.00. Warner’s efforts helped Burns to get off to a solid start in his ODI career.

Burns-Warner’s 139-run stand: Burns and Warner put up a mammoth 139-run opening stand within 22 overs and that undoubtedly put them in a strong position and helped Australia post a challenging total, thus setting up a taxing clash between both the teams, to which ultimately the visitors prevailed.

Ed Joyce’s blazing knock of 44: Ireland have the batting power that could upset top teams and Ed Joyce is a crucial component of their batting order. He proved his worth again in today’s game, keeping Ireland in the hunt with 45 from just 33 deliveries.

Niall O’Brien’s imposing knock of 45: Niall O’Brien, another lynchpin of the Ireland’s batting line-up and proved his worth yet again as he lent good support to Joyce.

Joyce-O’Brien’s 86-run stand: Joyce and O’Brien had given Ireland a glimmer of hope for the fans that they werecapable of causing an upset  as they stitched  a 86-run stand before they fell to Glenn Maxwell, following which wickets tumbled quickly.

Nathan Coulter-Nile’s three-wicket haul: It was the medium-pacer’s crucial three-wicket haul that helped save Australia from a probable embarrassment. Coulter-Nile ran through the top order with the wickets of Paul Sterling, Andy McBrine and Craig Young.

Maxwell’s crucial spell to dismiss Joyce and O’Brien:, Glenn Maxwell was indeed the crucial man who greatly helped Australia win the game as he scalped the wickets of the dangerous Joyce and O’Brien, who were moving the scoreboard along nicely and the wickets of the duo were right on time.

(Ayush Gupta is a reporter at CricketCountry. A passionate supporter of Manchester United, he idolises Roger Federer and is also a World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) maniac. He can be followed on Twitter @Ayush24x7)

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