That's all we have for you from this fixture between Ireland and South Africa. The Proteas have taken a 1-0 lead in the 3 match ODI Series.
For now, this is Pritam Dey signing off on behalf of my co-commentator Deepak Prakash who, along with scorer/analyst Zeeshan Naiyer brought all the actions of this clash. Stay tuned for more cricketing action from around the world. Bye Bye 👋
Temba Bavuma (South Africa Captain): "Yeah I think its a good start to the series. With the bat we managed to get ourselves to a competitive score.
Brilliant from Ryan and Stubbs with the bat and also the contributions down the order. Our bowlers bowled really well and they were disciplined too. Everything worked out well for us.
Well HD the update I have is that, he will go for a Scan tomorrow and then we will see. (On Tony de Zorzi)
The bowling unit bowled really well with the new ball. We wanted to keep the pressure going and the bowlers bowled at the right channel which brought us success."
Paul Stirling (Ireland Captain): "Yeah, it was a proud moment for me, and I’m lucky to have my dad here watching. To be honest, it did a couple of things I wasn't expecting. It moved around a bit in the evening, but it also nipped around in the first 20 overs.
We got some seam movement, but we probably dropped a couple of catches, which might have cost us the chance to take control of the game earlier. So yeah, a few disappointing moments, but also some things we did well. We'll sit back, reflect, and hopefully come out stronger on Friday.
When you have a team like South Africa three down, you really need to capitalize on that and take your chances. I think we missed an opportunity with the two batters who built that big partnership for the third or fourth wicket. That might have cost us. It's not the only thing that hurt us, but if we had taken those chances and gotten five wickets early, it would have made things a lot easier.
Absolutely, I’m delighted with how Gavin Hoey performed. It's never easy being a wrist-spinner, especially in these conditions against such strong opposition. They tend to put you under pressure right from the first ball, but he fought back brilliantly. His last five overs didn’t go for much at all. I’m really pleased with how he handled it, especially in the heat of Abu Dhabi after bowling his ten overs. We're very happy with that."
Ryan Rickelton (Player of the Match): "Yeah we were in a spot of bother early on but we wanted to get back to Test Match mode to see out that phase and then accelerate our Innings.
We managed to play out that phase and then built up a nice partnership together (with Stubbs). Yeah also the tail scored some valuable runs down the order and it helped us get to a good score."
Player of the Match : Ryan Rickelton
Lizaad Williams (Impact Player of the Match): "We did a lot of analysis and focused on bowling in the right areas to let the pitch do the work. I used the wobble seam since I don't get much swing, and it helped. The wind from one side also gave me a boost and helped me perform well."
Impact Player of the Match : Lizaad Williams
Time for the Post Match Presentations.
11:46 PM IST & 10:16 PM Local Time| A comprehensive win for South Africa in the opening encounter of the 3 Match ODI Series against Ireland by a massive margin of 139 runs.
Earlier in the day, Temba Bavuma opted to bat first without any hesitation in hot and humid conditions at Abu Dhabi. It was an Innings of four halves to be honest.
The surface had some good covering of grass and the Ireland seamers made full use of it. Bowled in the right line and lengths and South Africa were 3 down inside the Powerplay for 39.
South Africa required a partnership after being on the backfoot early on in the game. The pair of Tristian Stubbs and Ryan Rickelton steadied the ship and got them back into the game. The middle phase of the Innings belonged to the visitors as the pair added 152 runs together for the 4th wicket.
Both, Ryan Rickelton (91) and Tristian Stubbs (79) looked solid at the middle but went back to the pavilion against the run of play in quick successions and missed out on getting a well deserved Hundred.
South Africa all of a sudden from 191/4 were down to 229/8 as the Ireland bowlers fought back well. Paul Stirling-led side failed to wrap up the Innings as Bjorn Fortuin (28) and Lungi Ngidi (20*) added valuable runs in the fag end of the Innings to get the Proteas into a competitive total.
Mark Adair (4/50) was the pick of the bowlers for Ireland. Craig Young (3/45) was impressive too with the ball in hand. So the target for Ireland was 272 from their 50 overs.
In reply, Ireland had to get off to a good start in the run chase but just like their seamers utilized the conditions, this time it was the Proteas seamers who started off really well with the new ball.
Sent back the Ireland Skipper for a low score on his 400th International game. Ireland never got going in the run chase and kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Temba Bavuma marshalled his troops really well as South Africa have bundled out Ireland for 132 in 31.5 overs.
Lizaad Williams was the pick of the bowlers with figures off 4/32. So the Proteas have taken the lead (1-0) in the 3 Match ODI Series against Ireland winning this fixture by 139 runs.