England is yet to win a game against Ireland and Netherlands in T20 World Cup

After their five-run loss to Ireland, England team's winless run against European sides in the ICC T20 World Cup extended to four matches. Rain played a spoilsport in England's already shaky chase, helping Ireland defeat the former champions by five runs as per Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) method in the Group 1, Super 12 match of the ICC T20 World Cup at Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on Wednesday. In England's first-ever T20 World Cup match against a European team, they lost to the Netherlands, an associate team. The Dutch side pulled off a shocking last-ball win in their Group B encounter by four wickets. England's Group D tie against Ireland back in T20 World Cup 2010 also produced no result. Though after this match, England qualified for the Super 8s and went on to win the tournament for the first time ever. In the 2014 ICC T20 World Cup, the Netherlands gave England another jolt by defeating England by 45 runs in their Group 1 match. Following this match, England crashed out of the tournament in the Super 10 stage itself.

Now, eight years later, another Ireland-England match was affected by rain. This time, DLS came into effect and rendered the former champions to be five runs behind the par score. As a result, Ireland won the match by five runs. Coming to the match, put to bat first by England, Ireland was bundled out for 157 in 19.2 overs. Skipper Balbirnie top-scored with a brilliant 62 off 47 balls and had an 82-run stand for the second wicket with wicketkeeper-batter Lorcan Tucker (34). Other than this partnership, England bowlers dominated the inning. Pacer Mark Wood took 3 wickets for 34 runs in his four overs. Liam Livingstone also took three wickets for 17 runs in his three overs. Sam Curran got two while Ben Stokes got one wicket.

Chasing 158, England kept losing wickets at regular intervals, at one point reduced to 86/5. Knocks from Dawid Malan (35) and Moeen Ali (24*) offered the former champions some hope. However, with England five runs behind the DLS par score, rain interrupted the action and they lost the match by five runs. With this win, Ireland has climbed to the fourth position in the points table with two points and one win in two matches. England sits at third position with two points and one win in two matches.
Balbirnie was also crowned as 'Man of the Match' for his knock.

Brief score: Ireland 157 (Andrew Balbirnie 62, Lorcan Tucker 34; Liam Livingstone 3-17) won against England: 105/5: (Dawid Malan 35, Moeen Ali 24*, Josh Little 2/16) by five runs as per the DLS method.