England beat Ireland (just)

England gave Ireland the narrow beating of their lives yesterday, winning by 3 runs under the Duckworth/Lewis method.  It took a debutant and a part-time spinner to make the game safe, but we should expect nothing less in an England 50-over match.

For the last 15 years, England have royally stunk in this format of cricket, mostly because we’re just not that into it.  We’re not even going to bother with it in county cricket any more, and none of us are sorry about that.

But, the good news was that Joe Denly was given his debut, and took his chance with a top-score of 67.  Denly is one of the few young English batsmen who look capable of making the step into international cricket, and it would be good to see him get an extended run in the side.  He was even born in Kent…

Anyway, to sum up, England just squeaked past Ireland, so now we can all forget it ever happened and move on to something else.