Veteran India spinner's 'spirit of cricket' jibe at England after their loss vs Ireland leaves fans in splits

Ireland pull off one of the biggest upsets in the T20 World Cup 2022 so far as they stunned England in their Super 12 clash on Wednesday. The Andrew Balbirnie-led side defeated the 2012 champions by 5 runs via the DLS method to register their first win in the Super 12 stage.

Balbirine played a captain's knock for Ireland as he slammed 62 off 47 balls and combined with Lorcan Tucker (34) to help his team post a fighting total of 157 runs on the board. England were expected to chase down the target comfortably but rain played spoilsport after a sensational effort from the Irish bowlers in Melbourne.

England were restricted to 105/5 in 14.3 overs before rain halted play at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) eventually forcing the result to be decided by the DLS method as no further play was possible. England fell behind and ended up losing the game by 5 runs.

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Veteran India spinner Amit Mishra took a hilarious dig at England following their shock defeat via the DLS method referring to the recent debates around the 'spirit of cricket'.

"Congratulations @cricketireland on a massive victory. Hope England doesn’t say winning through DLS isn’t in the spirit of the game," Mishra wrote in a tweet, leaving cricket fans in splits.

Mishra's dig at England was based on the recent comments by former and current England players around the spirit of cricket debate following Indian women's team star Deepti Sharma's run-out of England women's team batter Charlotte Dean in an ODI game between the two sides at Lord's last month.

Several former and current England players had criticised Deepti for running Dean out on the non-striker's end despite the dismissal being within the rules of the game.

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On Wednesday,England got off to a shaky start in the 158-run chase against Ireland in the T20 World Cup as captain and opener Jos Buttler was out for a duck before Alex Hales got dismissed cheaply on 7 off 5 balls. Ben Stokes too couldn't trouble the scorers much and was dismissed for 6 off 8 balls.

Moeen Ali was in the middle batting on 21 off just 12 balls with Liam Livingstone when rain halted play with England still 53 runs behind the target and 33 balls left. They ended up falling behind by 5runs in the DLS method to suffer their first defeat of the tournament.