Good start to Irish title defence
The champions lost both the toss and their hold of four catches but nothing else as the Asian-dominated Scandinavian side were dispatched in less than two-thirds of the overs available.
The tournament newcomers won the toss and struggled against Andre Botha — they failed to score a run off the bat against him until his sixth over — but there was no sign of the collapse to come as they battled to 91 for three.
Alex Cusack then had top scorer Sameer Sachdev lbw for 38 and his successors had no answer to the wiles of Gary Kidd, either slogging him up in the air or edging catches to first slip to present the spinner with a return of four for 25.
Gary Wilson gave impetus to the start of the Ireland pursuit of 119 but it was the arrival of Botha — after Paul Stirling had fallen to a stunning low catch at cover — that delivered the eight-wicket win with 27.1 overs to spare.
National coach Phil Simmons said: “We still have plenty to work on. We would have preferred to bat first and bat for 50 overs because that is our game plan — but a win is a win.
“I was pleased with the debut of Gavin McKenna. He was swinging the ball into the right-handers and that’s necessary at this level. We will rest [fast bowler] Peter Connell as much as we can with so much cricket to be played over the next few weeks.
“We have work to do on our fielding but that will come right, I’m sure. At his stage we are building towards next Thursday’s match against Scotland. Everything will improve before then.”
Scotland began with a comfortable victory over Denmark at Malahide but there was a shock in the other game at Balrothery where Italy beat third-favourites Holland by eight runs.
At The Hills CC (Norway won toss): NORWAY 119 all out (43.1 overs) (G Kidd 4-25) lost to IRELAND 120-2 (22.5 overs) (G Wilson 47no) by Eight wickets
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