{"id":248104,"date":"2026-01-16T16:53:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T16:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/248104\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T16:53:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T16:53:09","slug":"ireland-u19s-open-world-cup-campaign-with-eight-wicket-defeat-against-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/248104\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland U19s open World Cup campaign with eight-wicket defeat against Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Ireland's U19 cricketers were beaten in their World Cup opener against Australia. Photo by Brendan Moran\/Sportsfile\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/2513043.jpg\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"100%\" data-testid=\"article-image\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_caption1 indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_secondary indo-66f0fec7_regular indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_marginleft0 indo-1d70522a_marginright0 indo-1d70522a_margintop3 indo-b48c4984_left\" style=\"color:var(--color-grey-60)\">Ireland&#8217;s U19 cricketers were beaten in their World Cup opener against Australia. Photo by Brendan Moran\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Rob O\u2019Brien flew the flag for Dublin\u2019s premier cricketing clan in Windhoek on Friday with a battling 79 as Ireland U19s opened their World Cup campaign against Australia with an eight\u2011wicket defeat.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">A 17\u2011year\u2011old left\u2011handed batsman, O\u2019Brien has been tipped for a career at the top level, and his 98\u2011ball innings, containing nine fours, confirmed his pedigree against a strong Australian attack in the Namibian capital.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Grandad Brendan \u201cGinger\u201d O\u2019Brien will have been delighted, while uncles Niall and Kevin, both top\u2011notch white\u2011ball batters, would have been impressed with Rob\u2019s late acceleration, with 38 of his runs coming from the last 24 balls faced.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">While opener Freddie Ogilby also impressed, falling one short of his half\u2011century, the Ireland total of 235\u20117 from the full quota of 50 overs was never going to be enough to stretch the young Aussies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Clontarf speedster Reuben Wilson claimed a wicket in an otherwise expensive opening spell, but Nitesh Samuel and centurion Steve Hogan added 186 for the second wicket to speed their side to victory with 10.2 overs to spare.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Opening matches don\u2019t come much tougher, and Ireland will be hoping to be more competitive against Sri Lanka on Monday before rounding off their pool matches with an intriguing clash with Japan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland&#8217;s U19 cricketers were beaten in their World Cup opener against Australia. Photo by Brendan Moran\/Sportsfile Rob O\u2019Brien&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248105,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8755,61,60,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-248104","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-cricket","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}