Debutant Josh Tongue took a five-wicket haul (5-66) in the second innings as England romped home to a clinical 10-wicket win against a spirited Ireland side on Day 3 of the one-off Test match, at the Lord’s on Saturday.
Tongue made the most of his late call-up to the Test side to take a five-wicket haul to help England wrap up Ireland’s second innings at 362/9 with opener James McCollom, who was out retired hurt, unable to bat and the visitors setting a target of just 11 runs.
After Pope and Duckett had fired England to a massive total on Day 2, it took quite an effort from Ireland to avoid an innings defeat. Tongue took four of the top five batters out to reduce the visitors to 126/4. Harry Tector put up a fight with a half-century, but the real aggression came from lower down the order.
Mark Adair and Andy McBrine smothered the England attack for more than a session, putting on the highest partnership by Ireland in Test cricket to launch a late fightback. The duo took Ireland from 162/6 to 325 before Adair fell 12 runs short of a century.
Matthew Potts broke the threatening partnership to end Adair’s stirring 76-ball 88 before Tongue completed his five-wicket haul with the wicket of Fionn Hand. McBrine remained unbeaten on 86 as Ireland finished on 362/9,
Zak Crawley went on to smash three fours in four balls to take England to an easy win as they began their summer on a positive note despite the injury cloud around the quicks that had hit them right before the Test match.
England have less than two weeks before the first Ashes Test of the next ICC World Test Championship cycle in Birmingham. They also named a strong 16-member squad for the first two Tests of the series earlier in the day.
Brief scores:
Ireland 172 & 362 in 86.2 overs (Mark Adair 88, Andy McBrine 86 not out; Josh Tongue 4-66) lost to England 524/4 decl. & 12 for no loss) by 10 wickets.
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