Stirling's 56 leads Ireland to win in Namibia

First one-day international, Windhoek

Ireland229-9 (50 overs): Stirling 56 (71); Loftie-Eaton 4-36

Namibia174 (37.5 overs): Trumpelmann 50 (43); Hoey 3-29

Ireland win by 55 runs, lead five-game series 1-0

Scorecard

Ireland began their five-game one-day international series in Namibia with a comfortable 55-run win.

Having lost the toss and been put in to bat, captain Paul Stirling led the way for his side with a half-century in Windhoek.

Namibia never seemed likely to chase down the target of 230, although Ruben Trumpelmann’s 50 off 43 balls coming in at number eight injected some life into their innings.

Having scarcely played in the 50-over format in recent years, the win was Ireland’s first ODI victory since May 2025.

The series resumes in Windhoek on Saturday.

Hoey impresses again as Stirling finds form

The second of three 50-over series being used to prepare Ireland for next year’s World Cup qualifiers, Gary Wilson’s side were coming in off the back of a 4-0 loss to Afghanistan in August.

After that comprehensive series defeat to conclude their home summer, the visitors arrived at the High Performance Oval amid questions over an onus on a settled top-six’s ability to lift the run-rate in the early overs and the bowling attack’s ability to take 10 wickets in the now unfamiliar format.

The line-up, now under the guidance of new batting coach Ed Joyce, was boosted by Stirling’s best ODI score since an 89 against Zimbabwe in February 2025.

The skipper had three scores in the 20s and one of single figures against Afghanistan, but his 56 off 71 balls to open this series contained eight fours and a six to snap a streak of 17 international innings without a fifty.

Stirling was eventually caught off the bowling of Nicol Loftie-Eaton, one of four wickets for the left-armer who also accounted for Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker and George Dockrell.

The latter, selected ahead of Ben Calitz at number seven, took a pair of wickets at a cost of 22 runs, to draw within one of Kevin O’Brien’s record of 114 for Ireland in the format.

It was Gavin Hoey, however, who led the way with the ball for Ireland.

Given the conditions, Wilson always seemed likely to go with two spinners in his attack, but his selection was complicated by the absence of leading seamer Mark Adair.

Regardless, after some impressive performances against Afghanistan Hoey felt one of the sure starters and backed it up with figures of 3-29.

In the absence of Adair, it was Jai Moondra who opened the bowling, crucially breaking Namibia’s 48-run opening partnership with the wicket of Michael van Lingen.

The left-armer finished with figures of 2-27 in eight overs to bounce back after a tough introduction to the format during the summer.