Ireland Preview

𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐂𝐇 : Ireland vs South Africa𝐃𝐀𝐓𝐄 : Oct 02, Wednesday𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 : 17:00 PM IST​​𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐔𝐄 : Zayed Cricket Stadium, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates𝐓𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐍𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓 : 1st ODI 2024 Can Ireland carry their T20 series-levelling momentum into the ODIs? Can South Africa shake off their 1-2 series loss to Afghanistan and pick up a series win?  Ireland vs South Africa TV channels: The fans can watch the match live on Hotstar Live Streaming: Live streaming of the match will be available on the FAFA191 Cricket Exchange India and website. IRE vs RSA Match Prediction & Analysis After the T20I series ended with Ireland and South Africa sharing the honours, the focus shifts to the ODI series. Ireland will go into the series with renewed confidence that they can topple a quality side like South Africa if they stick to their plans and play fearlessly. Now that the opportunity to add a T20 series trophy to their cabinet has gone begging, South Africa will look to quickly regroup and start prepping for the champions trophy to be held in Pakistan in 2025. A series loss to Afghanistan a few weeks ago, over at Sharjah, is a hard pill to swallow and the South African lads will be still hurting. But Ireland is a different challenge and South Africa, with 8 wins from 9 matches, will feel confident having had the upper hand over Ireland for many years. But they know they can’t rest easy because that gap is slowly but surely starting to close with the young and exciting Irish cricketers making big strikes on the international scene. Let’s see what the first match has in store for us. TEAMS PREVIEW Ireland Preview Ireland managed their first ever victory over South Africa in this format the last time these sides went head to head in the ODI series in Dublin in 2021. Victories like that and the one they just notched in the T20 series here bring a monumental shift in the way an associate side like Ireland approach challenging a heavyweight like South Africa. The Irish team hasn’t undergone much changes since that series, with the core of the team still intact. Paul Stirling has taken the reins and done reasonably well, winning 5 out of 8 matches that he captained. Harry Tector averaging 58.5 and striking at 91 has been the standout Irish player in this time period, with five 100s from 33 games. South Africa Preview South Africa’s bowling attack may have a lot of talent but they’re short on experience. Only Lungi Ngidi (33 matches) and Andile Phelukwayo (18 matches) have more than 10 caps in from the squad that’s been selected to represent the Proteas in this series. Bjorn Fortuin (7), Nandre Burger (5) , Lizaad Williams (4), Wiaan Mulder (8) and the newcomer Nqabayomzi Peter (2) have a combined 26 caps between them. Weather Conditions Abu Dhabi wickets always bring both batsmen and bowlers into play. It’s not a road, but teams have put sizeable totals on board here too. Stats suggest that any score over 250 batting first could be a real challenge for the chasing team, with the teams chasing only managing to win on 3 out of 14 occasions. The weather forecast for the match looks quite good and it’s highly likely that we would have a full match barring delay due to any unforeseen circumstances. IRE vs RSA Pitch Report The ODI leg of this series will also feature the Zayed Cricket Stadium, Abu Dhabi. Paul Stirling, the Irish captain, has plundered the runs here scoring 263 runs from 3 matches, with two centuries to his name including a high score of 131*. Toss: To Bat 19 out of the 26 matches played here since 2014 have been won by the team batting first, which goes to show there’s a definite advantage to winning the toss and batting first. And we reckon the team winning the toss would be happy to have a bat first.