Colombo, Sep 19: Shane Watson powered Australia to an easy seven-wicket victory over Ireland in their Group C match of the ICC World Twenty20 2012 here on Wednesday afternoon at the R Premadasa Stadium.
Here are the highlights of the match
# Ireland captain William Porterfield won the toss and elected to bat
# Porterfield, opening the batting, was dismissed off the first ball of the innings. Shane Watson was the bowler
# Australia did not pick David Hussey for this game
# This was the first T20I between these two sides
# Brad Hogg, the oldest player in the tournament at 41, took a wicket off his second ball. He trapped Gary Wilson LBW
# At 41 years and 226 days, Hogg is the oldest to make World T20 debut
# Hogg had figures of 4-0-22-1
# In the first six overs of powerplay, Ireland scored 29/3
# After 10 overs, Ireland were reeling at 46/4
# O'Brien brothers, Niall and Kevin had a partnership of 52 for the fifth wicket to rescue Ireland from early blows
# Watson dismissed O'Brien brothers in same over, 15th of the innings
# Watson finished with 3/26 in four overs. Mitchell Starc had two wickets while Hogg and Glenn Maxwell had one each
# Ireland managed only one six in their innings. That one came in the final over, by Nigel Jones off Watson
# David Warner completed 1,000 runs in T20 Internationals during his knock of 26 today. He is the third batsman after Brendon McCullum and Kevin Pietersen
# Warner and Watson partnership is the most successful in T20Is. They now have eight 50 plus stands in 26 innings which includes two century associations
# Watson hit three sixes and five fours in his 30-ball 51. This was his eighth T20I fifty
# Australia scored 53/0 in the first six overs
ThatsCricket