Josh Tongue’s five-for on his test debut helps England defeat Ireland by 10 wickets in the one-off match

In the one-off test at Lord’s on Saturday before the Ashes series against Australia, seamer Josh Tongue picked up his maiden five-wicket haul on his test debut to help England defeat Ireland by 10 wickets. However, the visitors shown some noteworthy grit with a valiant batting effort on the third day.

England declared on 524-4 with a big advantage of 352 runs on Saturday after bowling Ireland out for 172 in their first innings. This was after Ollie Pope and Ben Duckett both scored a stunning century on Friday.

Harry Tector gave Ireland a solid start when play resumed on 97-3. He scored 51 runs off 98 balls before being bowled at point by debutant Tongue, who had taken his fourth wicket of the innings. After two devastating defeats against Sri Lanka in April, Lorcan Tucker and Curtis Campher also left Ireland struggling with a third consecutive innings defeat seemed certain.

In a scorching seventh-wicket stand, Andy McBrine and Mark Adair attempted an efficient counterattack, making 163 runs off 165 balls—the greatest test partnership for Ireland.

When Adair, who was on 88, received the lightest of touches before falling into wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow’s clutches, Matthew Potts ended the important partnership. After Fionn Hand became Tongue’s sixth victim, McBrine persevered, scoring 86 not out to push Ireland over the finish line and force the host team to bat once again.

When England’s opener Zak Crawley faced an unremarkable target of 11, he struck Adair for three boundaries in four balls to secure England’s 11th victory in 13 tests.

After the game, England captain Ben Stokes remarked, “I think it gives us a good insight into the conditions and what we might get against Australia in the coming summer.”

“With less time remaining in the game, Ireland might have easily pulled farther ahead of us. As a result, we gave ourselves the chance to bowl them out and avoid having to bat once again.

“But fair play to Ireland, they batted really well there, and we didn’t have to go out and score many, but it does prove that being ahead of the game as we were can really work in our favour when the pitch is as flat as that was,” Stokes said.

England will now turn their attention to the Ashes series, which begins at Edgbaston on June 16, while Australia will first look forward to the championship match against India in the global test series at the Oval beginning on June 7.

Ahead of the first two tests of the five-match series, England picked an unchanged lineup, with Tongue keeping his spot after his strong bowling performance against Ireland.