In the absence of the injured Chris Gayle, the West Indian batting lacked the pyrotechnics that characterise batting in the Powerplays, and they laboured to 89 for 2 by the midway stage of their innings.
With a long tail to come, the openers' safety-first approach seemed a clever move, but a Kevin O'Brien double-strike in the 25th over undermined their plans.Shivnarine Chanderpaul, promoted to the top of the order, and Devon Smith played cautious cricket, hitting only six fours in the first 15 overs against some typically nagging Irish bowling on a track that, despite plenty of grass, afforded little movement for the seamers.
Mohali hasn't attracted big crowds in recent years, struggling to sell out even IPL matches, and the fans stayed stay for this neutral morning game. They didn't miss much in the initial stages as some dibbly-dobbly bowling was treated with undue care. Ireland didn't trouble the batsmen much, and perhaps their only chance of a wicket in the first ten overs was a Paul Stirling drop at extra cover off Smith.
West Indies were dawdling at three-and-a-half an over when Kevin O'Brien was introduced into the attack in the 19th. That prompted a rare big hit, Smith smashing the first ball over long-on for six. Then it was back to stealing-the-singles mode, before O'Brien hit back: first getting Chanderpaul to punch a catch to extra cover, and then dismissing Darren Bravo for a duck three balls later with a full delivery that crashed into middle stump.
