Dubai [UAE], January 27 : Italy defeated Ireland by four wickets in the third T20I match here at The Sevens Stadium in Dubai on Monday to register their first-ever victory over a Test-playing nation. Despite this historical win, they finished the three-match T20I series with 1-2 defeat. Italy is ranked 28th in the T20I team rankings and Ireland stand at the 11th place.
In their first-ever win against a full-member nation, Grant Stewart's hat-trick of sixes in the last over helped the Italian side seal the game with three balls to spare. He made 19-ball 33 not out including five boundaries.
While chasing a modest target of 155 runs, Italy lost their first wicket in the opening over. Italian skipper Wayne Madsen was the top-scorer for his side with a fighting 30-ball-39.
Italy needed 44 runs in the last four overs when the set batter Gian-Piero Meade (22 off 19 balls) lost his wicket. Marcus Campipiano joined Stewart at the crease who was struggling to connect from the other end.
The duo added 14 runs in the next two overs to leave the Italian side needing 30 runs in the final couple of overs. They collected 14 runs from the next over of Mark Adair including two boundaries.
Now, Italy needed 16 runs to win in the final over and then the miracle happened. Stewart hit Barry McCarthy for three sixes in his first three deliveries to finish the match for his team.
Earlier, Italy invited Ireland to bat first after winning the toss in the third and final T20I match of the series.
Ireland skipper Paul Stirling gave a dashing start but the left-arm seamer Ali Hasan bowled the opener batter Ross Adair in the third over to put the Irish side on the backfoot. Harry Tector (13 off nine balls) added 44 runs for the second wicket with his captain, but couldn't stay for long as Crishan Kalugamage dismissed him in the eighth over. Lorcan Tucker also lost his wicket in the same over.
Stirling kept hitting boundaries from one end but after making 45 runs off 38 balls, he also lost his wicket to Kalugamage in the 12th over.
Ben Calitz made a quick 12-ball-22 in the middle order. Gareth Delany (18 off 14 balls) and Mark Adair (25 off 21 balls) helped Ireland get to a fighting total of 154.
Kalugamage was the outstanding bowler for Italy with figures of 4-0-28-3. Stewart and JJ Smuts also took a couple of wickets each.
Italy will play their first-ever ICC T20I World Cup this year and this win will work a booster for the side with the competition starting next month. The 10th edition of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup is scheduled to begin on February 7. The prestigious tournament will run until March 8. India and Sri Lanka will co-host the 20-team tournament across 29 days and eight venues (five in India and three in Sri Lanka).
Italy have been placed in Group C, where they will compete against two-time champions England and the West Indies, along with Bangladesh and Nepal. The Azzurri will begin their T20 WC campaign against Bangladesh on February 9 at Eden Gardens in Kolkata, before facing Nepal on February 12 in Mumbai.
Brief scores: Ireland 154/10 in 19.4 overs (Paul Stirling 45; Mark Adair 25, Crishan Kalugamage 3/28)
Italy 157/7 in 19.3 overs (Wayne Madsen 39; Grant Stewart 33*, Matthew Humphreys 2/23).