EAST MEAD­OW – In­dia cap­tain Ro­hit Shar­ma fol­lowed up de­struc­tive bowl­ing from his side with a con­trolled half-cen­tu­ry to lead them to an eight-wick­et win against Ire­land in a low-scor­ing Group A match of the ICC Men’s Twen­ty20 World Cup, New York, USA on Wednes­day.

Shar­ma hit the top score of 52 be­fore he re­tired hurt af­ter be­ing struck on the up­per arm by a ris­ing de­liv­ery from left-arm pac­er Josh Lit­tle, and the In­di­ans got off the mark when they suc­cess­ful­ly chased a mod­est tar­get of 97 on a dicey Nas­sau Coun­ty Sta­di­um pitch.

The In­dia cap­tain made bat­ting look easy on the un­trust­wor­thy pitch and struck four fours and three six­es from 37 balls and shared a 54-run, sec­ond wick­et stand with left-hand­ed wick­et­keep­er-bats­man Rishabh Pant to put their side firm­ly on course for vic­to­ry.

When Shar­ma re­tired at the drinks break af­ter 10 overs, In­dia re­quired a fur­ther 21 and Pant got them over the fin­ish line with three fours and two six­es in 36 not out off 26 balls.

He for­malised the re­sult with 46 balls re­main­ing with an au­da­cious re­verse scoop over third man for his fi­nal six off pac­er Bar­ry Mc­Carthy to se­cure two points for In­dia and leave Ire­land to pon­der what hap­pened.

“New ground, new venue, we want­ed to see what’s it like to play on, but I don’t think the pitch set­tled down, and there was enough there for the bowlers,” Shar­ma said.

“If the con­di­tions are there for the seam­ers, we want­ed them in the squad. The spin­ners will play their part lat­er in the tour­na­ment, but we are open to mak­ing changes to suit the team’s needs.”

Ear­li­er, In­dia’s bowlers, led by Hardik Pandya, pro­duced a siz­zling dis­play on the spicy pitch and ripped through Ire­land, bowl­ing them out for on­ly 96 in 16 overs.

Pandya bagged three for 27 from his al­lot­ted four overs, pace spear­head Jasprit Bum­rah end­ed with two for six from three overs and was shock­ing­ly named Play­er-of-the-Match and left-arm pac­er Ashdeep Singh fin­ished with two for 35 from his four overs af­ter he was im­pact­ful with the new ball, but he was ex­pen­sive late on.

On­ly four Ire­land bats­men reached dou­ble fig­ures with Gareth De­lany lead­ing the way with 26, and he was the on­ly bats­man that got 20 or more.

Though there were the care­less strokes from the Ire­land bats­men that led to their down­fall, the na­ture of the pitch in be­tween left much to be de­sired, and many of the bats­men sim­ply could not cope with the un­even bounce, es­pe­cial­ly from the In­di­an pac­ers armed with the new ball.

“It was a tough one, the toss played a pret­ty cru­cial part, the pitch did a lot, and we weren’t up to that chal­lenge,” Ire­land cap­tain Paul Stir­ling said.

“In­dia bowled well and put us un­der pres­sure. It was how to go about it, want­ed to put pres­sure back on the bowlers, but every­thing we tried went up in the air. Their lengths were out­stand­ing.

“We’ve got a big game or two com­ing up, so any time out in the mid­dle is cru­cial. Hope­ful­ly, the pitch gives us a bet­ter run come Fri­day.”

In­dia faces po­lit­i­cal and sport­ing arch-ri­val Pak­istan on Sun­day at the same venue, where Ire­land meet Cana­da on Fri­day – but Group A match­es con­tin­ue on Thurs­day when co-hosts Unit­ed States face Pak­istan at the Grand Prairie Sta­di­um in the Amer­i­can city of Dal­las in the state of Texas.

CMC

Scores:

IRE­LAND 96 all out off 16 overs (Gareth De­lany 26; Hardik Pandya 3-27, Jasprit Bum­rit 2-6, Ar­shdeep Singh 2-35).

IN­DIA 97 for two off 12.2 overs (Ro­hit Shar­ma 52 re­tired hurt, Rishabh Pant 36 not out).

In­dia won by eight wick­ets.

Play­er of the Match: Jasprit Bum­rah (In­dia)

Match­es

To­day

Group A: USA vs Pak­istan, Dal­las, USA, 11.30 am

Group B: Namib­ia vs Scot­land, Bridgetown, Bar­ba­dos, 3 pm

To­mor­row

Group A: Cana­da vs Ire­land, New York, USA, 10.30 am

Group C: Afghanistan vs New Zealand, Prov­i­dence, Guyana 7.30 pm

Group D: Bangladesh vs Sri Lan­ka, Dal­las, 8.30 pm