India bundle out Ireland for 193; Sreesanth, Chawla scalp 3 apiece

Belfast, June 23 (UNI) Pacer S Sreesanth and leg-spinner Piyush Chawla snapped up three wickets each as India bundled out hosts Ireland for 193 in the one-off ODI match here today.

Sreesanth justified skipper Rahul Dravid's decision to field first by striking in the fifth over of the day when he got K Carroll to nick one to wicket-keeper Dinesh Karthik, who kept wickets after Mahendra Singh Dhoni had to miss the match due to an injury.

The next batsman in, Joyce and Porterfield tried to stitch together a partnership but the Kerala pacer once again unsettled the opposition by sending Joyce back to the hut when the score read 47 in the last delivery of the 14th over.

Porterfield followed quickly, getting bowled by Ajit Agarkar after struggling for the 16 runs he scored.

Leg-spinner Piyush Chawla then came into the thick of things, not only bolwing economically but by picking up three successive wickets to break the rival's back.

He began by bowling one of the three debutants for Ireland, G Wilson for 13, reducing the rival team to four for 75 and followed it up with wickets of K O' Brien and A White for single digit figures.

The 18-year-old's impressive bowling figures, which read as 10-2-29-3, must have brought smiles to the face of the selectors.

However, key player Niall O' Brien kept up his reputation, scoring the only half century (52 off 70 balls) for his team, studded with four hits to the fence before being caught by debutant Rohit Sharma for RP Singh's only wicket.

Sreesanth then came back to get the dangerous Trent Johnston, who scored a brisk 34 off 44 balls. The Irish skipper departed but not before hitting one four and sending the ball over the ropes on two ocassions.

UP's left-arm seamer RP Singh cleaned up McCallan for his second wicket of the match before Sachin Tendulkar rolled over his arm to complete the formalities by getting another debutant K Wheelan stumped by Karthik in the last ball of the day.

Earlier, Mumbai bat Rohit Sharma made his ODI debut while Zaheer Khan was left out of the XI.

The depleted Ireland side, with World Cup bowling heroes Boyd Rankin, Andre Botha and Dave Langford-Smith and Middlesex batsman Eoin Morgan all missing out, will find it extremely hard to defen the paltry 193 they managed.

Only seven members of the squad that beat Pakistan in the World Cup played the match.

UNI