Cricket
Delaney plays his part in men’s T20 World Cup
By Daire Walsh
DESPITE another accomplished display from Knocklyon’s Gareth Delany, the Ireland men’s cricket team fell to a 42-run loss at the hands of host nation Australia at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in The Gabba, Brisbane on Monday.
Having recorded an outstanding victory over England by five runs at Melbourne Cricket Ground just five days earlier, Ireland gave themselves a fighting chance of reaching the semi-final stage of the competition. While the abandonment of their proposed meeting with Afghanistan on Friday – owing to heavy rain – may have halted their progress to a certain extent, Australia were in the same boat after seeing their own showdown with England being called off.
The Aussies had begun Group One with a convincing defeat to southern hemisphere rivals New Zealand, before getting their campaign on track with a seven wickets win over Sri Lanka. Although Ireland came off second best to Sri Lanka on October 23, they were in a buoyant mood as a result of getting one over on England.
After winning the toss and electing to bowl, Ireland began the play in bright spirits. An international debutant in July 2019 – before being awarded a central contract by Cricket Ireland the following January – Delany closed out a power play with a four-run over.
Yet Australia were beginning to grow in confidence with Mitchell Marsh leading the way for the hosts. From this point onwards their opponents were largely in the ascendancy, but there was no doubting the spirit and the determination of the Irish as they battled against the tide.
Thanks to Lorcan Tucker and Delany in particular, Ireland were offered a glimmer of hope coming towards the home stretch. However, it was the Aussies who came away with the victory in the end.
As a consequence, the maximum number of points Ireland can accumulate from Group One is five – a tally already achieved by both Australia and New Zealand. In order to reach the penultimate phase of this Super 12 competition, they will need to defeat the latter at Adelaide Oval tomorrow and hope that results elsewhere can go their way.
If they are to have another successful outing, then Ireland will require another top-range performance from Delany.
Cricket very much runs in the 25-year-old all-rounder’s family with his sister Laura currently serving as captain of the Ireland women’s cricket team. Additionally, their cousin David is also a gifted cricketer and a current club-mate of Gareth at Munster Reds.