Injury-hit Australia have brushed off the loss of their captain pre-match to cruise past Ireland and kick off their T20 World Cup with a commanding 67-run in Colombo.
World Cup debutant Matthew Renshaw and Marcus Stoinis helped Australia recover from a shaky start to set Ireland a challenging 183, before pace leader Nathan Ellis ripped through the Irish top order with a career-best 4-12.
Ellis’ opponents had no answers for the Tasmanian’s guile as he exploited the sluggish surface where spin was responsible for 65 per cent of the overs bowled in the match (24 of 36.5).
The spinners followed Ellis’ initial two-over burst that yielded 3-5, with Adam Zampa (4-22) and Matthew Kuhnemann (1-29) taking control to roll Ireland for 115.
The first-up win takes Australia immediately to the top of Group B with a net run-rate of 3.35.
Stoinis’ 45 and Renshaw’s 37 controlled the middle of the innings with their 61-run fifth-wicket stand lifted Australia from a precarious 4-88 to a competitive 6-182 at R. Premadasa Pitch.
The Aussies’ injury woes worsened when they lost captain Mitch Marsh to a serious blow to groin area suffered at training on Sunday in the build-up to their tournament opener at R. Premadasa Stadium.
Stand-in captain Travis Head opted to bat with the 2021 champions also missing power-hitter Tim David who is recovering from a hamstring injury, as well as star quicks Josh Hazlewood (Achilles) and Pat Cummins (back) after they were ruled out for the tournament.
It meant Australia named a quartet of World Cup debutants with Renshaw, Kuhnemann, Cooper Connolly and Xavier Bartlett included for their maiden appearance at a major global tournament.
Head’s call went against the grain of Australia’s bowl-first mentality that has yielded outstanding success since the last T20 World Cup, but it proved a masterstroke as game’s afternoon timeslot minimised the impact of the lights and meant batting appeared to get harder as the match progressed.
Head was dropped in the first over and then run out on the first ball of the second in a mix up with new opening partner Inglis as his side stumbled out of the blocks in the Group B encounter.
Inglis (37 off 17 balls) got the innings going with a trio of boundaries to close left-arm spinner Matthew Humphreys’ second over, as Cameron Green (21 off 11) added two huge sixes to take Australia to 2-64 after the six-over Powerplay.
The second of those sixes off seamer Mark Adair landed in the second tier of the Premadasa Stadium, but the allrounder fell the next ball attempting to deposit another into the yellow and blue stands as he cue-ended a catch to short midwicket.
Inglis departed coming out of the Powerplay when he mistimed a lofted drive that a diving Irish skipper Paul Stirling gleefully accepted at cover, while Glenn Maxwell (9) couldn’t get going in his international return as he edged behind off the part-time spin of Harry Tector.
It left the No.2 ranked men’s T20 side needing to consolidate on a wearing pitch, and Renshaw and Stoinis spent a period rebuilding as Australia hit just one boundary in 22 balls until the latter found the rope twice in the 12th over.
Ireland bowled 10 straight overs of spin between the sixth and 15th overs as they tightened the screws on their more fancied rivals.
Stoinis received a life in the 18th over, but he couldn’t make Ireland pay for another woeful fielding display having dropped five catches in their first match against Sri Lanka, only able to add eight more as he picked out deep square leg seeking to accelerate.
“It’s nice to get a score on the board, an important partnership between ‘Stoin’ and I,” Renshaw told the host broadcaster at the innings break.
“We knew that we were probably the last pair that needed to build a partnership and he was a nice influence for me having never really batted with him before, kept me calm and made sure I was watching the ball.”
Connolly and Bartlett (both 11 not out) added a crucial 23 runs at the death in their first World Cup innings, taking Australia’s total well above the average first innings score for T20s in Sri Lanka.
After spending most of Australia’s innings off the field following his diving catch to dismiss Inglis, Stirling hurt his knee running a single on the first ball of the run chase. The Irish skipper limped straight off and wasn’t seen again as his side were bowled out in the 17th over.
Player-of-the-match Ellis showed no signs of the hamstring niggle that kept him out of the BBL finals, opening his tournament with two wickets in his first over.
The crafty right-armer bamboozled opener Ross Adair with his back-of-the-hand slower ball with his first delivery of the match before he had Curtis Campher bunting a catch to midwicket two balls later.
He added a third scalp with the first ball of his second over to have Ireland effectively five down given Stirling’s injury for just 27 runs in the Powerplay.
Like their opponents in the first innings, Australia turned to spin to control the scoring rate as Kuhnemann and Zampa bowling their allotted four overs, and Connolly three.
Lorcan Tucker (24) and George Dockrell (41) added respectability to the score with a 46-run partnership, with Ireland at least able to cross three figures before succumbing to defeat.
Their second loss in as many games leaves their hopes of progressing beyond the group stage extremely slim and they next face Oman at the tournament’s second Colombo venue, the SSC Ground, on Saturday.
Australia meanwhile return to the Premadasa Stadium on Friday to face Zimbabwe.
2026 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup
Australia squad: Mitch Marsh (c), Xavier Bartlett, Cooper Connolly, Tim David, Ben Dwarshuis, Cameron Green, Nathan Ellis, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Matthew Kuhnemann, Glenn Maxwell, Matthew Renshaw, Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa. Travelling reserve: Sean Abbott
Australia’s Group Stage fixtures
February 11: v Ireland, R.Premadasa Stadium, Colombo (8:30pm AEDT)
February 13: v Zimbabwe, R.Premadasa Stadium, Colombo (4:30pm AEDT)
February 16: v Sri Lanka, Pallekele International Stadium, Kandy (Feb 17, 12:30am AEDT)
February 20: v Oman, Pallekele International Stadium, Kandy (Feb 21, 12:30am AEDT)
Australia’s Super Eight fixtures
(Assuming all seeded teams qualify)
February 23: Australia (X2) v West Indies (X3), Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai (Feb 24, 12:30am AEDT)
February 26: India (X1) v Australia (X2), MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai (Feb 27, 12:30am AEDT)
March 1: Australia (X2) v South Africa (X4), Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi, 8:30pm AEDT
Click here for the full tournament schedule
All matches will be broadcast on Amazon’s Prime Video
