IRE vs NZ 2026, IRE vs NZ Only Test Match Report, May 27 – 30, 2026

New Zealand 361 for 5 (Blundell 141*, Ravindra 121, Adair 3-66) vs Ireland

Rachin Ravindra and Tom Blundell scored centuries, and shared a 217-run partnership for the fifth wicket, to rescue New Zealand from a precarious position in their first-ever Test against Ireland.

Playing in Belfast, New Zealand were put in to bat on an uneven pitch. The ball zipped around in the hands of their most successful fast bowler in Test cricket, Mark Adair. He plucked out three wickets early. He castled Tom Latham, shouldering arms to a big inswinger, with his second delivery. Then, Devon Conway flicked a slot ball off his pads and straight to debutant Liam McCarthy, who put in a full-stretch dive at midwicket to produce a stunner. And finally, Adair had Daryl Mitchell caught behind feeling for it down the pitch, on a sixth-stump line.

Sandwiched in between these wickets was McCarthy’s maiden Test wicket, and the most vital one of the first session. Kane Williamson had been struggling for timing at the crease during his laboured 70-ball 36. He played with his trademark soft hands to survive. Balls ricocheted off his outside edge and dribbled down to the slips or deep third. However, his luck finally ran out when McCarthy pinged him right on the pads.

By the end of this passage of play, New Zealand were reduced to 86 for 4. Ireland’s inexperience in Test match bowling showed thereafter. They had been plagued by injuries in the lead-up to this Test, and had been forced to field three debutant fast bowlers. Out of them, McCarthy fetched the solitary wicket for the trio, finishing with 1 for 96 from his 20 overs.

The other two Ireland debutants went wicketless. Thomas Mayes – a tall, burly bowler – failed to build pressure with consistent lines. His high point of release extracted bounce off the surface, but he strayed onto the pads or bowled wide too often to force either batter to play at his deliveries. He bowled eight maidens in 17 overs, but most of these were a consequence of erring on the side of shorter lengths, which Ravindra and Blundell left alone.

Reuben Wilson, too, went wicketless in his 18 overs, though his late movement and steep bounce stayed the most consistent out of the three debutants. Ireland’s general plans meant they, and Wilson in particular, stuck to angling back-of-a-length deliveries away from the left-hander Ravindra. They wanted to tempt him into a drive over after over, but Ravindra went into a shell instead.

He excelled in getting on top of the bounce, or leaving the shorter deliveries, to march through a wicketless second session alongside Blundell. The only chance he offered up was when he was dropped in the 38th over off Wilson, when captain Andrew Balbirnie dropped an edge off Ravindra at second slip.

The pair put up 110 runs in these 27 overs, in a passage of play characterised by defensive bowling from Ireland. When they came back out to bat, the mid-20 Celsius temperature – a heat wave in this region – had tired out the bowlers further.

Ravindra ambled through the nineties, and brought out a cracking swivel pull off McCarthy in the 70th over. He rolled his wrists over a short delivery that travelled flat and over the ropes. He had brought up his fifth Test century with a shot in contrast to the rest of his innings: he got the landmark in 175 deliveries, making it his second-slowest ton in the format.

At the other end, Blundell made batting look much easier. The right-hander kept leaning late into his cuts, often timing them past backward point and deep third. Ireland bowlers gave him width outside off to work with, and he obliged in an innings of off-side authority.

He raced away to the nineties himself, and within three overs of Ravindra reaching the landmark, he was down on one knee to sweep spinner Andy McBrine towards deep midwicket. It was his sixth Test ton, and first since December 2024 against the red ball. The very next over, he hit 4, 4, 4, 6 off spinner Harry Tector to push the pedal.

Ravindra holed out looking to up the ante against Tector as well. He swatted a long hop across the line, but straight to deep midwicket, in the 78th over. Blundell then shifted down gears, accumulating 58 runs for an unbeaten sixth-wicket partnership, in the company of debutant Dean Foxcroft.

This Test is a rare four-day contest, coming ahead of New Zealand’s three-Test series against England in June. Blundell and Foxcroft batted through till close of play, and New Zealand will now be keen for the pair to resume, with three days left in hand to push their advantage into a win.

Abhijato Sensarma is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo

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