Photograph: Gareth Copley/Getty Images
Righto, that’s it from us today. Apologies for this damp squib of an OBO. Fingers crossed for better weather on the Emerald Isle for Sunday, I’ll be back for that one too. Enjoy your afternoon, goodbye!
Updated
Here’s a mini-report and a bit of news from Taha at the ground:
Rain ruined the second Twenty20 international between England and Ireland at Malahide, the match abandoned without a ball bowled.
Prospects were low when a damp outfield delayed the scheduled 1.30pm start and spurts of heavier rain added to the frustration of a sell-out crowd. Ireland, already struggling to arrange home fixtures due to budget constraints, have had four out of their eight games this summer washed out, three without any play.
The sides will return to the same venue on Sunday with a brighter forecast. There will be no England debut in that final T20 for Scott Currie, who will fly back to play for Hampshire in their One-Day Cup final against Worcestershire on Saturday.
Updated
Match abandoned!
You knew it, I knew it. This one is kiboshed by rain.
Still nowt official outta Malahide. There was some action with the covers a while ago but in a ‘kicking the tyres on a clapped out old banger’ sort of way rather than a ‘chances of play are significantly improving’ sort of way.
No news from Malahide, Taha seems to think it is a case of ‘when’ rather than ‘if’ they call this off.
We wait. We quiz?
I think a five over thrash might even be too much to ask today, apparently it is still hosing it down in Malahide and the crowd has started to thin out.
Brian Withington is still feeling lyrical though:
“The thing that struck me most about Phil Salt’s last two innings is how very well he was timing the ball. He appears to have eased up a touch on the outright grievous 1970s Sweeney style brutality (Liam Livingstone please note) and instead settled for just boxing the ball about the ears as a 1950’s police constable might have dispensed to a scallywag truant schoolboy.”
Lovely stuff.
“It was spitting and now it’s back to a light drizzle.” Taha is really earning his corn today. I’d call him Michael Fish but he’s too young to know who that is. He’s probably too young to know Schafernaker. Not a criticism.
My friend/comrade/mentor/squeeze Jon Hotten has also dipped his quill about all things Phil Salt, you’ll have a squizz if you know what’s good for ya:
But numbers are just one way of expressing what Phil Salt does, what he is part of. They’re like the score to a great symphony, understandable as the method of conveyance, but hardly like hearing the music. Indeed, you don’t need to be able to read the music to listen, in the same way that you can watch without the slightest interest in interpreting the statistics.
So what is it like to watch Phil Salt? What language do we need for that? Because he is not one for the aesthetes or the classicists, is he? His conventional shots are not quite beautiful, they don’t have the zing or the dazzle of a Lara or a Sharma or a Gill. Abhishek, as a left-hander, has all of that mirrored grace absent from old Salty. No-one is hanging a Salt on their wall.
Instead, Phil Salt hits a new, hard cricket ball as hard as he can, which is very hard indeed. But that hardly works as a description, does it? We’re groping around for language. What would Arlott say? How would Cardus write it down?”
NEW and FREE at our substack https://t.co/7FLS7jML9P pic.twitter.com/RFPOprH63t
— Jon Hotten (@theoldbatsman) September 19, 2025
Taha sends a soggy missive from Malahide:
“Afternoon, all. The England players are enjoying a game of keepy-ups on the outfield but the covers are on the square, and the forecast is not the prettiest. It’s been spitting over the last hour and if it gets any worse ... well, it doesn’t look great. Unlike Wednesday, this is a sold-out contest… oh it is properly tipping it down now.”
Blame him, not me.
Taha Hashim is our man in Malahide. I’ll try and winkle some weather intel out of him. In the meantime, read his piece on the in form Phil Salt:
Oh this does not look good:
Well, this looks suboptimal #IrevEng pic.twitter.com/YMs16baVXO
— Andrew Miller (@miller_cricket) September 19, 2025
Preamble
Hello and welcome to the second T20I between Ireland and England from Malahide.
England won the first match on Wednesday by four wickets, chalking up their first win over Ireland in the format. Yes, you heard me right. Phil Salt was in tubthumping form once again with the bat, thrashing 89 off just 46 balls to give Jacob Bethell his first win as an England captain.
It’s a sell out just outside Dublin today but unlike the glorious sunny skies above me in deepest Sussex I regret to inform you that it is raining at the moment in Malahide. The forecast isn’t that tasty either if the radar is anything to go by.
The toss has been officially delayed and the umpires are due to inspect the pitch at 13.30pm.
I’ll let you know as soon as we get any news. In the meantime it might be a case of sitting this one out together so do please get in touch at the usual place with any musings and meanderings.
