Kirton, Gordon, Heyliger power Canada past Ireland

EAST MEADOW, New York (CMC):

Three players with ties to the Caribbean – led by former Barbados Pride left-hander Nicholas Kirton – propelled Canada to a confidence-boosting, 12-run win against Ireland in the ICC Men’s Twenty20 World Cup, yesterday.

Kirton hit the top score of 49 from 35 balls that earned him the Player of the Match award and set the foundation for the Canadian total of 137 for seven after they were put in to bat in their Group A match on the unreliable Nassau County Stadium drop-in pitch.

Guyana-born pacer Jeremy Gordon and Dilon Heyliger followed up with tidy spells, and the Irish were restricted to 125 for seven from their allocation of 20 overs in reply.

Canada are playing in the T20 World Cup for the first time, and the result was welcomed after they lost the tournament opener against co-hosts and neighbours, United States by seven wickets this past Saturday in the American city of Dallas.

‘MAGNIFICENT WIN’

“I think just coming back from obviously the first game, where we thought we should have won that game was good. I feel like all three departments, we kind of clicked [in this game], so it’s a magnificent win for us,” Gordon told reporters during a post-play news conference.

“I’m very happy obviously to contribute to the team success because I personally felt my over is what kind of gave it away the last game, so for me to come back and help the team get over the line – to me, I feel like I’ve done a good job, so I’m quite happy,” Gordon added.

Canada crawled to 37 for two at the close of the Power Play after Navneet Dhaliwal was caught at backward point off Mark Adair for six in the third over, and fellow opener Aaron Johnson was caught at deep backward square leg off Craig Young for 14 in the fifth over.

The Canadians were left reeling on 53 for four in the ninth over after Pargat Singh was caught at third man off Young for 18 in the seventh over, and Dilpreet Bajwa gave a return catch to Gareth Delany.

Kirton, the top-scorer for the Canadians against the United States with 51, struck three fours and two sixes, and he drew on all of his experience to pull Canada out of trouble, putting on 73 with Shreyas Movva for the fifth wicket.

When the 26-year-old left-hander was caught at short fine leg off Barry McCarthy in the penultimate over, he had already transformed the complexion of the innings and given his side hope of a first win in the tournament.

Ireland closed the Power Play on 31 for one, but their top order could only find the boundary once, and Gordon took two for 16 from four overs, and Heyliger supported with two for 18 from his four overs to tighten the grip and usher Canada over the finish line.

Adair hit the top score of 34, and George Dockrell was not out on 30, but no other Irish batsman reached 20.