India-born left-arm pacer Jai Moondra made a memorable start to his international career when he became the second Irish player to take a wicket on the first ball of his T20I career.Mudra made his batting debut in India’s second innings in the first international match against India in Belfast on Friday. His victim was Sanju Samson, who was hit while trying to force the ball back to his own stumps from the off-side.Moondra joins Matthew Humphreys as the only Irish bowlers to take a wicket on the first ball of his T20I careerScored his first career goal in T20I for Ireland
- Matthew Humphreys
- Jay Mundra.
The 29-year-old made his T20I debut for the national team in the first match of the Ireland Civil Service Cricket Series.Born in Tok, Rajasthan, Moondra moved to Ireland in 2021 to study for a Masters in Electronics and Communications. After settling in Ireland, he joined Leinster Cricket Club in Dublin and worked his way into the Irish domestic cricket system.Interestingly, Mudra did not start out as a fast bowler. He started his cricket journey as a batsman and also bowled with left-arm spin before switching to pace bowling.Earlier in the day, India captain Shreyas Iyer won the coin toss and elected to bat first.India’s fast bowlers put the Irish batsmen under pressure with disciplined bowling and restricted the hosts to 182 for nine. Harshit Rana emerged as the pick of the bowlers with 3 for 24.Ireland captain Lorcan Tucker fought back with a 36-ball 50 but did not get enough support from the other batsmen.Despite pre-match expectations, India did not make his debut to teenage batsman Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.
