Ireland vs New Zealand, Only Test, New Zealand tour of Ireland, 2026 - CommentaryIRE vs NZ, Only Test, New Zealand tour of Ireland, 2026 - Commentary

New Zealand will be highly pleased with their all-round performance. It sets them up nicely ahead of the 3-match Test series against England in England which is set to begin within a week. Ireland hardly play Test matches but this experience against the fifth-ranked Test side in the world will augur well for them. Playing more Test matches against top nations will help them to refine their skills and develop better match-awareness. We hope you enjoyed our coverage. Don't go anywhere though as the Qualifier 2 of this season's IPL between Gujarat Titans and Rajasthan Royals is in full swing - Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, the young prodigy, has struck a mature fifty to keep things going for the Royals. Hop tabs to catch all the action. Until next time, goodbye and cheers!

Here's the glory moment! Tom Latham has been presented the trophy and he is all smiles! He poses for photographs with his teammates behind the winners hoarding.

Tom Blundell | Player of the Match: (on enjoying his innings and the partnership with Rachin Ravindra) Yeah, I enjoyed winning. Just to spend a bit of time in the middle - I haven’t batted in the middle for a while now, so it was nice to spend some time there. Having that partnership with Rachin as well was really pleasing. (on the key to his innings and success on the wicket) I think it was just patience all around. It wasn’t the easiest wicket and it was a wicket that kept you really honest at times. It was all about building partnerships and hitting a couple along the way, which was great. It was a pretty difficult wicket at times, but we managed to get through. (on using the reverse sweep against Andrew McBrine) Yeah, it was. I thought he bowled really well and hit a nice length. There wasn’t much spin on the wicket, but I was able to bring out the reverse sweep and it got me a lot of runs. (on Dean Foxcroft’s debut innings) It was great for Foxy on debut. To come so close, he probably deserved the hundred, but I’m sure he will take a lot of confidence from that knock. (on New Zealand’s time in Northern Ireland and preparation for England) Yeah, it’s been fantastic. The weather’s been great and we’ve played a bit of golf along the way, which has been nice. It’s been a hell of a time here and this has been great preparation for what’s to come.

Latham (2/2): (on recovering from 86 for 4 and the batting partnerships) Yeah, we were under pressure. I thought Ireland bowled fantastically well with the new ball on a surface that offered a little bit, especially while the ball was hard. We saw that across all three innings. But we talk a lot about absorbing pressure when we’re under it and then knowing when to put it back on the opposition. I thought Rachin and Tom did that fantastically well. They absorbed the pressure and then when they needed to score, they scored. To do that for as long as they did and put on more than 200 runs was a fantastic partnership. Then Dean on debut, after waiting a long time to get out there, backed it up with another great partnership. It was awesome to see guys who maybe haven’t played as much putting their hands up with performances. (on heading into the England series with confidence) Yeah, we love coming to this part of the world and playing Test cricket. It’s a really special place with a lot of history. We’ve been here a lot recently, certainly in my time. We’ve got a really good opportunity to come over here and put our best foot forward and play our brand of cricket. We know if we do those things right, we will give ourselves a chance. It’s been an awesome Test match to be part of here in Belfast and we’re really looking forward to the next couple of weeks.

Tom Latham | New Zealand skipper: (1/1) (on handling pressure during the Test match) We were under a little bit of pressure at times, which is what you want, but I think the way the guys were able to come out, especially on that first day after being under pressure, to absorb it and then put it back on them with a couple of great partnerships was really crucial. Then obviously with the ball, we had periods where we were fantastic and periods where we weren’t at our best, but we managed to bring things back and got the rewards, which was great. (on the contrasting experience levels in the XI and the bowling performance) Yeah, they did fantastically well. I thought we bowled really well with the new ball and Nathan Smith up top certainly set the tone for us. But when the ball got softer and the wicket flatter, that’s where we were challenged a little bit. I thought the work we did after tea yesterday to come out and be relentless in our areas and ask questions for long periods was fantastic. We haven’t played Test cricket for a while, so for us it was about trying to find that rhythm and tempo again, and we managed to do that. (on how valuable this Test was as preparation for England) It’s been fantastic. First and foremost, it was a Test match and that was our focus. We wanted to come here and play our brand of cricket as best we can. Obviously we know what’s coming up in a couple of weeks. For us to be put under pressure at times, for guys to spend time on their feet and get time in the middle, that’s really important and hopefully it sets us up well for what’s ahead.

Balbirnie (2/2): (on Ireland’s continued struggles at the top of the order in Test cricket) I think it’s just facing high-quality new-ball bowling, which is not something we’re probably used to doing that much. The stats are there for everyone to see. It’s tricky. Our middle order has shown that if you can get through to the softer ball on a flatter wicket, you can cash in. Unfortunately none of our top order have really been able to do that. But we will keep trying and hopefully down the line we will get our rewards. (on the contributions from the middle order) If our top order started getting runs, I think we’d get some really big scores because our middle order has been so effective for us. It’s great to see they’ve been so consistent and got us out of a lot of difficult situations. As a top order, we’ve got to be better and make sure they come in when we have the foot on the gas and are ahead of the game. (on Ireland’s Test future) I’ve always been a big advocate for Test cricket. It’s been a big part of my career and I’ve been there since the first Test. It means a lot to us as players to play it. But I also think we need that structure below us so players can come into the Test arena with confidence without having already played Tests, if that makes sense. We don’t want to just find out about players at the biggest stage. I hope down the line that will be the case because these guys love playing Test cricket, they love wearing the whites and the baggy blue. We just want to keep playing it and keep trying to get better at it. (on New Zealand and their upcoming series against England) I’m really looking forward to watching that series just as a cricket fan. Two really good countries playing in good spirits. They’re really nice guys, but they play tough cricket. The moment they get the ball or the bat in hand, they showed us how it’s done and how to succeed in Test cricket. We can definitely learn a lot from the last three days and hopefully our Test cricket keeps moving forward.

Andrew Balbirnie | Ireland skipper: (1/1) (on the quality of the New Zealand side) Yeah, they’re very good. We didn’t expect them to be anything else. It’s tough, really tough for our guys to come up against a top team and put in a really good performance. They were relentless in everything they did. We had a bit of a sniff on that first morning, but they showed that once you get through that tricky period, you can get big scores and big hundreds. Then with the new ball they kind of blew us away in the first innings and from there we were always playing catch-up. (on the decision to bowl first after winning the toss) No, I wouldn’t have changed it. I wasn’t in two minds, I was happy to bowl. I think the start we got was brilliant and exactly what we were after. We just probably didn’t take our chances. I had a chance at slip and wasn’t able to hold on and maybe that could have been a different story. But if I go back, I would make the same decision again. It’s just a shame we weren’t able to capitalise on that start. (on the three debutants) I was really proud of them, especially with their families and support networks here. It’s difficult. Reuben is only 19 years old, made his first-class debut last week, spent a whole day in the field on day one and then had to come out and open the batting on day two. He’s not used to that, but I thought he did really well and all our seamers did as well. The tough thing is there’s nothing now for them to go back to in terms of first-class cricket to gain more experience. But they’ve been exposed to Test cricket and international cricket now and hopefully they will benefit from it.

McBrine did score a classy 73 and Adair also gave him good support but once the latter departed, the visitors cleaned the tail up in a jiffy to bundle the hosts out for 179. New Zealand then chose to enforce the follow-on. It was a slightly better batting performance from Ireland in their second essay. The fact that they were already trailing by a long margin didn't help their cause. Doheny scored a composed fifty at the top while Tucker also struck a fluent fifty lower down the order. Adair also had some fun at the fag end but the others were not good enough. Tickner shone with a maiden five-wicket haul while Smith impressed throughout the game to finish with eight wickets. Stick around for the presentations...

15:36 Local Time, 14:36 GMT, 20:06 IST: A comprehensive innings victory for New Zealand in their first-ever Test against Ireland! The visitors were dominant with both bat and ball throughout the game and hardly allowed Ireland to have their breathing space. The most promising phase for Ireland was in the morning session of the opening day of the game when they had reduced the Kiwis to 86/4. But, the 217-run stand between Rachin and Blundell not only helped New Zealand to stabilise their innings but also surge ahead. Both of them scored centuries. Foxcroft also played brilliantly in his Test debut innings and missed out on a century by a whisker. NZ declared at 490. In response, Nathan Smith broke the backbone of the Irish batting lineup by picking up five wickets in the first ten overs of the innings. The hosts couldn't recover after the early jolt.

Blair Tickner to Reuben Wilson, THATS OUT!! Caught!!