Belfast, June 28 (IANS) Ireland stunned T20 World Cup champions India by securing a one‑run victory in the second T20I to complete a 2‑0 series sweep, their first‑ever bilateral series triumph over the Asian giants. Tilak Varma’s fighting 55 kept India in the hunt, but debutant Jai Moondra’s early strikes and disciplined death bowling ensured the hosts defended 154/8 at the Civil Service Cricket Club in Stormont on Sunday.

The result ended India’s streak of 16 consecutive T20I series wins dating back to 2023, as it marked one of the greatest weekends in Irish cricket history. Lorcan Tucker’s side, missing five first‑choice players, showed remarkable spirit to defend totals in both matches.

Jai Moondra and Matthew Hollard picking three wickets each helped Ireland in being the better bowling side across both games. For India, the series defeat was a sobering reminder of the challenges in excelling on outside IPL pitches and their shortcomings in facing left-arm fast bowlers. Despite Varma’s resistance, the Indian middle order faltered under pressure, leaving Ireland to celebrate a famous triumph in front of a jubilant home crowd.

The chase began disastrously for India as Moondra dismissed openers Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma for first‑ball ducks. Just like how it happened in the first game, Samson fell for a duck after he missed a flick off Moondra’s skiddy delivery and trapped lbw. On the fourth ball, Abhishek miscued a pull off Moondra’s short ball to third man.

India were rattled further as skipper Shreyas Iyer chopped onto his stumps off Moondra for 10. Ishan Kishan attempted to rebuild alongside Tilak Varma, but a mix‑up resulted in his run‑out for 12. At 39/4, India were in deep trouble, having lost four wickets inside the Powerplay for just the 13th time in T20Is. Vice-captain Varma, however, held his nerve.

He struck successive boundaries off Moondra through the leg-side and steadied the innings with a 32‑run stand with Axar Patel. Rain interruptions briefly halted play, but the duo ensured India stayed afloat, even as the asking rate hovered above eight runs per over.

Once the game resumed, Matthew Hollard broke the partnership as Axar looked to steer him, but was caught by a superb Lorcan Tucker diving to his left and completed a stunning one-handed catch. Shivam Dube added some impetus into the innings with two fours, before pulling to deep square leg off Matthew Humphreys.

Amidst all this, Varma hanged around and brought up his fifty in 45 balls by hitting India’s first six of the innings – crouching low to heave Hollard over deep mid-wicket. But on the very next ball, Varma’s aim to hit a lofted drive resulted in him mistiming to extra cover, and was followed by debutant Suryansh Shedge’s pursuit of clearing the bigger side of the ground ending in a catch to deep mid-wicket.

Rana, though, had other ideas – he slammed Moondra through point for four, before muscling him over long-on for six. With 20 runs needed off the final over, Rana got a boundary by evading the keeper on the free hit. Despite Tector giving two wides, he had the last laugh by having Rana caught at long-on. Though Prince Yadav hit a last-ball six, it wasn’t enough to stop the result from going in Ireland’s favour.

Brief Scores: Ireland 154/8 in 20 overs (Harry Tector 53, Ben Calitz 37; Prince Yadav 3-22, Shivam Dube 2-25) beat India 153/9 in 20 overs (Tilak Varma 55, Harshit Rana 21; Matthew Hollard 3-26, Jai Moondra 3-32) by one run

–IANS

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