Jacob Bethell admitted it felt ‘pretty special’ to win his first game as England captain, with the 21-year-old steering his team to a four-wicket victory over Ireland in the first T20i on Wednesday, September 17.
Bethell won the toss and asked Ireland to bat first in Dublin, where the Warwickshire star is taking captaincy duties for the series as Harry Brook gets a well-earned rest.
The hosts got stuck into England’s bowling unit, with Harry Tector (61no off 36 balls) and Lorcan Tucker (55 off 36 balls) piling up a 123-run stand which helped Ireland post a competitive total of 196 for three.
Good platform
Ireland’s openers Paul Stirling and Ross Adair laid a good platform by putting on 57 for the first wicket – and England’s bowling was fairly toothless, missing the bite and pace of Jofra Archer.
Adil Rashid (1-36), Liam Dawson (1-39) and Jamie Overton (1-40) took the wickets for Bethell’s visitors, then in-form opener Phil Salt continued his fine fettle with bat in hand.
Salt peppered the Ireland bowlers in a blistering innings of 89 off 46 balls, and received support from Jos Buttler (28 off 10) and Sam Curran (27 off 15) as England scored 197-6 in 17.4 overs.
Graham Hume took two for 36 and Matthew Humphreys snared two for 44, but Bethell – who scored 24 runs – was pleased to get a convincing win under his belt.
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Batting depth
He told TNT Sports: “I think the opening partnership [between Salt and Buttler] averages 55 or something crazy. Batting after them is pretty nice and we have a lot of batting and depth.
“It was a good total for Ireland. I think coming off we would have said a couple too many, but we didn’t know how this ground was going to play.
“It feels pretty special and to win the first one is always nice. Can’t wait to go again on Friday.”
Ireland captain Paul Stirling felt there were plenty of positives for his team to take heading into Friday’s second showdown.
He said: “We will take all the positives, of which there are multiple. Hopefully over the three-match series we will show improvement in all areas.
“You know you have got to get everything right in the second innings and we didn’t quite manage that. But I am proud of the lads and their efforts.”
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Geoffrey H. Latayan 
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