England (155-4, 17.1 overs) (Jordan Cox 55; Craig Young 1-21 ) beat Ireland (154-8, 20 overs) (Gareth Delany 48*; Adil Rashid 3-29, Jamie Overton 2-17) by six wickets.
All things being equal, two completed games out of three is a good result given last week’s forecast at Malahide. Rain and two comfortable England victories was always a likely script for September cricket, the latest result secured by the visitors by a margin of six-wickets on Sunday to wrap up a 2-0 series victory.
The wet conditions during the week ensured Wednesday’s runfest in game one would not be repeated, the ground taking a rain-swept beating. Mercifully, the wet stayed away on Sunday - a pair of showers aside.
Asked to bat at the toss, Ireland laboured their way to 154, Gareth Delany’s stellar knock of 48 not out averting a much lower total. In response, England’s Jordan Cox withstood a leg injury to power England to victory with a maiden international half-century.
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Playing on a used pitch, Ireland struggled for timing with bat in hand. Still, early signs were promising from a green-tinted perspective as Ross Adair found much-needed rhythm, a series of strong shots down the ground off England debutant Sonny Baker building momentum.
Despite his six boundaries in a knock of 33 from 23 balls, Ireland’s powerplay was sluggish. Paul Stirling departed when edging spinner Liam Dawson behind, leaving the score after six overs at 46 for one. On Wednesday, Ireland reached 49 without loss by the same stage.
England continued to limit scoring once the fielding restrictions lifted. Jamie Overton had success hitting a heavy length. Ireland couldn’t launch shorter deliveries over the fence. Lorcan Tucker departed early picking out a man in the deep. Curtis Campher came down the wicket in a bid to change the length, only to pick out long-on.
Adair departed in a similar manner to game one, sweeping a spinner to deep mid-wicket, leaving Harry Tector and Ben Calitz to rebuild. The latter, on debut, showed flashes of the power against spin which got him picked, notably sweeping Adil Rashid into the stands. He departed a few balls later before he could repeat the dose, skying Rashid straight up.
Tector continued to take a liking to leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed but otherwise struggled to find the middle of the bat. England kept the ball out of his preferred driving arc and he was one of multiple players to find difficulty against shorter deliveries sticking in the pitch.
Only Gareth Delany looked consistently fluid. In his first international innings since February - an injury-enforced absence - he twice pulled Luke Wood into the stands and took a liking to Baker down the ground. His unbeaten cameo of 48 ensured Ireland reached the 150 mark. Which was never likely to be enough.
A few early scalps kept ensured a buzz from the supporting punters, an atmosphere of any sort a novelty at Irish cricket games. Campher took a stunning one-handed catch to remove Jos Buttler while Delany continued the strong catching theme when diving forward in the deep to remove the impressive Jacob Bethell.
Phil Salt nicking off to Campher - only after putting on 57 in partnership with Cox - again kept the crowd engaged, but Ireland never threatened to pull off an unlikely victory.
Their focus now shifts ahead of their next assignment, a pair of November Test matches in Bangladesh.
