Ryder confirms fitness after injury
Jesse Ryder confirmed his recovery from the groin injury that forced his withdrawal from the IPL, as he cracked a rapid 64 from 30 balls, including five fours and five sixes, to lift New Zealand to a matchwinning 187 for 5 in their opening Twenty20 warm-u
Cricinfo staff
27-Apr-2010
New Zealand 187 for 5 (Ryder 64) beat Ireland 147 for 9 (Porterfield 34, McCullum 3-25) by 30 runs
Scorecard
Scorecard
Jesse Ryder confirmed his recovery from the groin injury that forced his withdrawal from the IPL, as he cracked a rapid 64 from 30 balls, including five fours and five sixes, to lift New Zealand to a matchwinning 187 for 5 in their opening Twenty20 warm-up against Ireland at Providence.
After New Zealand won the toss, Ryder opened the batting alongside Rob Nicol, who made 31 from 30 balls in an opening stand of 104. Paul Stirling made the breakthrough by bowling Ryder in the tenth over, but Martin Guptill replaced him with similar bravado at No. 3, and rattled along to 50 from 35 balls.
It wasn't until George Dockrell, the 17-year-old left-arm spinner, entered the attack that Ireland managed to apply a brake to the scoring rate, as he removed Nicol, Scott Styris and Gareth Hopkins in a superb four-over spell of 3 for 24. But Daniel Vettori biffed 18 valuable runs from 12 deliveries to give the total a late lift.
In a valuable pointer as to the conditions that can be expected at the Providence Stadium in Guyana, spin continued to play a major role when New Zealand's turn came to bowl, with Nathan McCullum taking the new ball and striking in his first over as Stirling was bowled for a duck.
McCullum added two more wickets in his spell - Niall O'Brien for 12 and Gary Wilson for 31 - both stumped by Hopkins - as Ireland's hopes of victory evaporated. Trent Johnston smacked two sixes in a 12-ball 16 before becoming Hopkins' third stumping of the innings, this time off Styris, while Kevin O'Brien was run out for 28 from 19 balls.
