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Porterfield wants good cricket for 100 overs
- Updated: September 24, 2016
There is losing, and then there is being completely and totally outplayed. For the last three times that Ireland have played ODIs against Full Members, it has been the latter. They were beaten by 255 runs by Pakistan, and before that, by 136 runs and 76 runs by Sri Lanka, making for grim reading. However, William Porterfield, their captain, managed to find the positives.
“We’ve done a lot of things well for 80 to 85 overs in a lot of those games,” Porterfield said. “Against Pakistan, we pretty much had an off day, and Sharjeel (Khan) had a very good day. He was the big difference in the game. If we kept him out of it, it would have been a decent enough contest. We probably lost the Sri Lanka game in seven or eight overs on the field. Those things can happen if you’re not right on it.”
Realistically, that is a generous analysis. Sharjeel’s 152 off 86 balls accounted for almost half of Pakistan’s total of 337, but even if he had been kept quiet, Ireland only managed 82 in response. Similarly, they were unable to muster strong replies against Sri Lanka after conceding heavily in both the matches they played in June.
The real reason for Ireland’s recent struggles may lie a little …
