T20 World Cup: England stunned by Ireland as rain results in five-run defeat

Ireland's upset of England in the Men's T20 World Cup was a big blow to their title hopes.

England, one of the tournament favorites, were 105-5 in the 15th over when the rain came.

Ireland secured a five-run win on the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method when the match was stopped because of England's slow rate.

England's hopes of progressing from Group 1 are still alive, but they will need to beat Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka in their remaining games to make it.

After slipping to 86-5, the rain came just as Moeen Ali was hitting 12 in three balls to get England back in the game.

England left ruing their top-order collapse before they returned to the Melbourne Cricket Ground to face Australia on Friday.

On the same day, Ireland will play Afghanistan.

England upset by Ireland again

The timing of the rain was unfortunate, as one more ball would have taken his side ahead of the score required.

England doesn't have a lot of complaints. Their performance was below average.

Ireland beat England in Bangalore in the 50-over World Cup of 2011), but they are the second lowest ranked team in the competition.

The England's tactics with the bat were odd.

They hit only eight boundaries in 87 balls after losing their captain for a duck.

With the required rate up around 10 runs per over, they looked to take on the long MCG boundaries, but Harry brook was caught off the spin of George dockrell.

After allowing the men in green to race to 102-1 off 12 overs, they were able to peg their opponents back.

England's hopes of winning a second T20 world title are in serious danger after they collapsed in the final over to dismiss Ireland.

Australia lost to New Zealand in their opener but rebounded to beat Sri Lanka.

Most batters struggle in Melbourne

The reason for the defeat was the first 10 overs of the match, according to Buttler.

He was caught behind driving left-armer Josh Little, who then had Alex Hales caught at short fine leg.

After making six from eight balls, Ben Stokes was taken out by an inswinger from Fionn hand.

England's stodginess was summed up by Dawid Malan's batting performance. He took 37 balls for his 35, but was not very good at timing his shots.

Ireland was able to exploit the swing and seam brought to life by the rain before the game.

When the rain came, he had 24 from 12 balls, including a six when he hit Delany.

England lay blame at poor start

Ireland was put to the sword by England in the first 10 overs due to a shower.

After the early loss of Paul Stirling, Ireland skipper Andrew Balbirnie, who made a superb 62 off 47, and Lorcan Tucker put on 82 together, Chris woakes was punished for giving 41 from three overs.

Tucker hit a magnificent drive off Sam Curran over the mid-on rope, after hitting a brilliant ramp over short leg.

Mark Wood said that the first 10 overs were flat. They weren't at their best.

Tucker run out at the non-striker's end when Balbirnie's push was glanced onto the stumps by the hands of Adil Rashid was a stroke of luck that broke the stand.

Wood's pace was so fast that he bounced out Stirling and Campher with ease. The scoring was halted by Liam Livingstone who took 3-17.

His three overs cost 31 and he only took two of them.

'Amazing and emotional' - reaction

If you don't play well in T20 cricket you can be punished. Any team can be the number one team in the world. They deserved to win and we were off.

We weren't at our best with the ball. I'm not happy with myself. I could have done a better job on that day. I could have been more consistent if I just looked at myself.

We didn't deserve to win here.

It's emotional because we haven't played a game of cricket here.

It's gratifying to come here and play the tournament favorites, with so many big names, and put on a show in front of friends and family. One of the most amazing cricket grounds in the world is where this is taking place.

In the first 10 overs, we were poor. Ireland got away from us because we were a long way from where we needed to be.

This result has put a lot of pressure on us, but it's as big as it can get now to get us up for it, Australia v England at the MCG.