Rajasthan-born Irish pacer Jai Moondra made history against India, becoming only the second Irish cricketer to…

Indian left-arm pacer Jai Moondra made a memorable start to his international career by becoming only the second Ireland player to score with the first ball of his T20I career.Moondra, who played his first international match against India in Belfast on Friday, struck with the first delivery of his spell in the second over of India’s innings. His victim was Sanju Samson, who was bowled after he dragged the ball back onto his stumps as he tried to force it out of bounds.Moondra joins Matthew Humphreys as the only Irish bowlers to take a wicket with the first ball of their T20I careerA wicket from the first ball of a career T20I for Ireland

• Matthew Humphreys
• Jai Moondra.

The 29-year-old made his T20I debut after Ireland handed him his first international cap for the series opener at the Civil Service Cricket Club.Born in Tonk, Rajasthan, Moondra moved to Ireland in 2021 to pursue her Masters in Electronics and Communication. After settling in the country, he joined Leinster Cricket Club in Dublin and worked his way up through the Irish domestic cricket system.Interestingly, Moondra did not start out as a fast bowler. He started his cricketing journey as a batsman who also bowled left-arm before switching to pace later.Earlier in the day, Indian captain Shreyas Iyer won the toss and elected to field first.The Indian fast bowlers kept the Irish batsmen under pressure with disciplined bowling and restricted the hosts to 182 for nine. Harshit Rana was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 3 for 24.Ireland captain Lorcan Tucker fought back with 50 off 36 balls but did not get enough support from the other batsmen.Despite pre-match expectations, India did not give teenage batsman Vaibhav Sooryavanshi a debut.