🏏ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026, M 14: Aus vs Ireland, at Colombo🏏 - Page 3

Cooper Connolly to Lorcan Tucker, FOUR, beautifully played, tossed up around middle and leg—Tucker runs down the pitch, makes room, and then slaps the drive through extra-cover and running away across the fast outside edge.

It seems Australia is going to register a big win today.

A straightforward win for Australia and they've started their campaign on a confident note. Chasing down 183 at the Premadasa isn't easy by any stretch and Ireland were left without captain - Paul Stirling - who seemed to have aggravated an earlier injury on the field. They were then opened up by Nathan Ellis and Matthew Kuhnemann as they slipped to 27 for 4 in no time. It was then a mere formality even as Lorcan Tucker (24) and George Dockrell (41) showed some fight. But both came unstuck in front of Adam Zampa and Ireland eventually crashed to 115 all-out, slipping to their second straight loss. Four wickets each for Ellis and Zampa as the Australians enjoyed an easy day in the field. Earlier, their total of 182 was built around solid contributions from the top-order before Stoinis's 29-ball 45 provided the final impetus.

6.25pm Ellis was the star of this all-round Australia bowling effort, scalping up his best T20I figures of 4 for 12. The pitch only got slower as the day progressed. Ellis and his slower balls in the powerplay effectively bowled Ireland out of the contest. Unfortunately, they will also be sweating on Paul Stirling's fitness now, after he limped off on the first ball of their chase. But for Australia, a 67-run win will boost their NRR after they have dominated this opening day contest.

Nathan Ellis | Player of the Match: No, it's probably more the unknown of what you're gonna get. I've been here a few times now and it's been a bit sporadic at times, watching some of the games at this tournament at this stadium pre our game today. You sort of have to show a lot of skin through the middle and some slower wickets. And sort of you're a little bit coming in, but for me, it's just trying to adapt on the fly and just trying to get started. I think I'll get along now that I know the rest now and I've had some time off at home. So I was like, yeah, here we go. First one away. Yeah, I mean, I'll take the average height down a fair way, but also it's, I mean, we've said it a lot now these weeks, but we haven't seen a lot of the big boys in the white ball cricket series in the last 18 months. We sort of the likes of Bartlett, Sean Abbott, some of the younger guys in the recent series in Pakistan. So we're playing together a few now and you know, I think the planning and the processes in the last eight months leading to this has put us in a good understanding to go deep hopefully without, without the likes of the big boys. Probably after watching the first couple of overs for, you know, swing things out the part of the start-up and there wasn't a lot of swing or seam there for me. So I sort of just came to like, what my home is back is the power play in the middle. Yeah, sort of trying to just see what I can see and see where and, yeah, probably the best support. Yeah, I think for me being a little bit shorter and a little bit skinnier, especially on these wickets when I do go pace on, I just try to hit the wickets as hard as I can and, and try and bowl as fast as I can. So, as much as I keep my arm speed similar and hopefully as more speed, as big a difference as I can, I'm sort of hopefully, you know, give myself a little bit of an unfair advantage. Yeah, it's one of those ones with Zorby, he sort of does that walk off regardless of another day. You know, I think if you just sit back and really think about it, I really don't want to take you for granted, because he's one of the world's best, but yeah, he's just our power. So yeah, another, another great outing for tonight, but I mean, I can't go without mentioning that middle order partnership to get us to the title today. It looks, you know, I've had on a little bit earlier, but then I want to lie to him, and then after me, he scored a few runs out there. So with friends, these experienced friends and sort of just put on a partnership like that for us for the title that we could apply some pressure in the powerplay.

Congratulations to Australia for their easy victory against the helpless Ireland.

A straightforward win for Australia, and they've started their campaign on a confident note. Chasing down 183 at the Premadasa isn't easy by any stretch, and Ireland was left without captain—Paul Stirling—who seemed to have aggravated an earlier injury on the field.

Congratulations to Australia for winning the match.

Congratulations to Nathan Ellis for winning the Player of the match award.

Cheers..