Two out of three, but Ireland had to dig deep

Ireland made it two wins out of three in the ICC World Twenty20 qualifiers after a narrow two-wicket victory over Italy in Abu Dhabi.

In 30C heat, Ireland were made to sweat by the disciplined bowling performance of an Italy team whose starting 11 contained just one home-born player, captain Alessandro Bonora, with Australian, South African and Sri Lankan accents all to be heard at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium.

Italy’s batting performance was far from convincing, as they crawled to 100 for seven off their 20 overs.