Michael Bracewell Hits Unbeaten 127 As New Zealand Snatch Victory From Ireland In 1st ODI

Michael Bracewell hit a hard-fought match-winning 127 to perform a heist as New Zealand defeats Ireland.

Bracewell being applauded by New Zealand dug-out after his match-winning knock

Source : Black Cap's official twitter handle

New Delhi: Michael Bracewell, in just his fourth ever ODI, hit an unbeaten 127 to clinch the win from Ireland as New Zealand chased down the target of 301 in an epic fashion, played on Sunday, July 10.

Reeling at 217/8, Ireland had all but a spirited resilience from Bracewell took the game to 40 required off 18 balls.  However, a brilliant penultimate over from Mark Adair gave only 4 runs and also took the wicket of Lockie Ferguson forcing New Zealand in the final over to win the match. They required 20 runs off the final over to win. Michael Bracewell stunned everyone present at The Village in Dublin as he struck Craig Young for 24 runs off 5 balls to script one of the most memorable and hard-fought ODI victories in New Zealand Cricket history.

During the first innings, Ireland, riding on Harry Tector’s 113, reached 300 as the Kiwi bowlers looked clueless in the death overs.

The Kiwis batting side was off to a shaky start as they were reeling at 19/2 after 5.1 overs and looked like choking the match at the hands of Irish. Veteran Martin Guptill steadied the ship and scored a brilliant half-century as his 51 helped the Black Caps get back into the game.

In the bowling department, Lockie Ferguson was the pick of the bowlers from the Kiwis as his 10-1-44-2 helped in holding Ireland as the rest were expensive. For Ireland, Curtis Campher was the stand-out bowler. His brilliant all-round performance included his supporting innings of 43 and he ended up with figures of 10-0-49-3.

Ireland will be looking to avoid series defeat as they face New Zealand at the same venue on July 12 for the second match, Tuesday, in the three-match ODI series.