IRELAND EARNED AUTOMATIC qualification for next year’s ICC World Twenty finals with a 85-run victory over Hong Kong in Abu Dhabi today.
Man-of-the-match Paul Sterling scored 77, the second best score from an Irish player in T20 cricket, as the Group A leaders recorded a 207-4 with their opponents all out for 122.
“I’m pleased on a personal level to do so well with the bat and ball,” Sterling said afterwards.
“But at the end of the day today was all about qualifying for the World Cup and we did that, we achieved it and we’ll take three or four days off until the semi-final.”
Ireland will now take on the winners of The Netherlands and UAE in the semi-finals on Friday.
IRELAND: 207-4 (20 overs, P Stirling 77, K O’Brien 62*, W Porterfield 38, Nizakat Khan 2-26)HONG KONG: 122 all out (17.1 overs, J Atkinson 48, P Stirling 4-10, G Dockrell 2-18)
Will the fight against Dubois be rescheduled.
As long as Bivol stayed on his feet he was getting that result so that Eddie and the Saudies could bring us the trilogy fight.
@Jp Cleary: in fairness he boxed the right fight using his jab and combinations to keep Artur at distance. Bivol speed and countering were excellent in the latter half of the fight and the cross was given Artur all sorts of problems. It was close 115-113 was fair. Artur had the better early and late rounds with his pressure and shot selection, but Bivol adapted, a trilogy is a must, two close fights. I know Parker is trained by Andy Lee but Christ, give these two light heavyweights greats the headline. They’ll go down as legends. I would love to see the trilogy in vegas but that unfortunately wont happen with the Saudi money.
@John Clifford: how much did bakole get for the two rounds it was a total mismatch he didn’t look like the first cousin of a boxer?
John Clifford.. completely agree wrong fight getting the headlines here .. beterbiev-bivol super fight real skill between two elite fighters.. beterbiev is very unusual at forty to be able to compete with a man who dismantled canello.. bivol will win fight three I’d say, age has to be on his side a bit plus supreme skills
Fairplay him taking bokole out nowhere always was going be dangerous he can put feet up in morecambe againg Tyson hughie and all the boys.
@Paully kells: what you say Paully???