Denly Targets Opening Berth

Having made a promising start to his international career on Thursday by top-scoring against Ireland, Joe Denly has been enjoying some positive press attention. His score of 67 enabled England to post a just about competitive 203, though rain reduced the Ireland chase to 116 from 20 overs. They fell three runs short, despite the match again highlighting D+L's inability to manufacture a fair reduced target in heavily rain-affected games - something England discovered against the West Indies in the World T20.

The Telegraph described England as "underwhelming", which they were, but such games against the Associate Nations are essentially no win (defeat leading to heavy criticism, victory seen as no more than expected). After posting a sub-par score (only two batsmen achieved strike-rates of above 100), England did well to contain the Irish batsmen, who at one point needed just 57 from 12 overs - but not much can be read into most aspects of the performance. After all, Owais Shah claimed three wickets in as many overs with his part-time offbreaks.

However, Denly was able to make an impression, rising above the mediocrity to play an innings described by The Telegraph as "probably England's best performance by a new boy since Marcus Trescothick announced his arrival against Zimbabwe nearly a decade ago."

Nick Hoult's report went into further detail, and included another flattering comparison: "Only one England player truly coped. Joe Denly provided encouragement for the future with an innings of patient accumulation worth 67 off 111 balls. Tall and an elegant driver of the ball, there is a passing resemblance to Michael Vaughan and Denly made a strong case for keeping his place when Andrew Strauss returns for the one-day series against Australia."

No doubt mindful of Alastair Cook's quiet Ashes series, this successful first taste of international action has prompted Denly to target a place in the Test team.