PHIL Simmons has got very little wrong in his two-year tenure as National Coach of the Ireland team but his team selection for yesterday's opening game in the Super Eights of the World Twenty20 will take some explaining.

It probably would not have mattered which 11 turned out in green at Trent Bridge against the mighty Black Caps of New Zealand - Ireland lost by 83 runs - but he did his captain few favours when he left out the squad's fastest bowler, Boyd Rankin, and Andrew White, the top scorer the previous day in the defeat to world champions India.
William Porterfield had to face the media after his team conceded 198 for five, their highest total in a Twenty20 international, and he toed the party line by saying it was a toss up between Rankin and the man who replaced him yesterday, Peter Connell.

'In the make-up of our side there was room only for one of Boyd or PC. In the last couple of games, things got away from Boyd and he has gone for a few runs. We know he is a wicket-taking bowler but he just wasn't consistent enough. It's a toss-up between the two and today we went with PC. But things didn't work out.

Porterfield's actions on the field, however, spoke volumes. Connell went for 14 in his first over, Trent Johnston, from the other end conceded 18 but while Connell w as immediately replaced by Kevin O'Brien, TJ was given a second over and, indeed, went20on to bowl his full quota at a cost of 43.

Johnston returned to the team as one of three changes with Niall O'Brien also passed fit despite not knowing the results of a scan on his ankle.

Porterfield explained: 'Whitey is not going to bat at No 3 or 4, so Botha was the natural selection there and with Trent back in the middle-lower order, Whitey was unlucky. It is certainly unfortunate on him but we have a competitive 15 and you are looking to play your strongest 11 so guys are going to be disappointed.'

The game was all but up for Ireland after those first two overs as Aaron Redmond, only called into the team yesterday as replacement for the injured Jesse Ryder, went berserk, hitting seven fours in his first 10 balls and the first 13 of the match!

His 50, including 11 boundaries, came off just 23 balls out of 64 and the player who scored 146 in 80 minutes in the Bolton League last weekend even overshadowed Brendan McCullum, his captain for the day.

Against a Kiwi side missing Ireland's nemesis, Daniel Vettori, Ross Taylor and Ryder, they probably never had a better chance of causing an upset but in the end the bowlers did well to keep the rampant Black Caps to less than 200.

McCullum hit the 100th six of the tournament but by the end of the innings the tal ly had risen to 108 as Martin Guptill hit four, Scott Styris three and Jacob Oram one,=2 0the latter's 15 coming at a strike rate of 214, even better than Redmond.

Alex Cusack was hit for three maximums, Kevin O'Brien, who initially even managed to rein in Redmond, and Regan West conceded two and Kyle McCallan and Trent Johnston were also forced to look back in anger.
Gary Wilson was chosen to open the batting with Porterfield, who was unluckily run out, backing up, and took advantage of a ‘life' on five to score 23 off 28 balls. Andre Botha top scored with 28 but was one of four run-outs in the innings, two of them to suicidal misjudgement.

Ireland have two non-match days before they face Sri Lanka at Lord's on Sunday afternoon, plenty of time for Simmons to ponder before his next team selection.