No Excuses From Porterfield as Ireland Fall to Embarrassing 179 Run Defeat to Scotland in World Cup Warm Up Match

Irish Captain William Porterfield rued poor decisions by his team when batting coupled with some inept fielding which led to the embarrassing 179 run World Cup warm up defeat against Scotland.

Apart from some decent spells of bowling from Max Sorenson, Andrew McBrine and Craig Young there was little to please the Irish skipper as his team failed to get anywhere near the just above par Scottish total of 296.

Big improvements in the batting and fielding will be expected for the next warm up game against Bangladesh.

Barry Chambers: William we're notoriously slow starters, but we're certainly taking it to the limit with that display today. It's not ideal?

William Porterfield: It wasn't ideal. I think it was just a case of there was just a lot of poor decisions out there. It was just very disappointing. I think with the ball, we bowled very well at stages. I don't think we're where we should be at with the fielding, that's something that's controllable.

But yeah, as I said, I don't think that they were too many over par there in the grand scheme of things. Going out to bat, at 60 for 1, you would think we were very well placed. But there's no excuse for going from 60 for 1 to where we ended up.

Barry Chambers: I was speaking to the Groundsman, he though a 270, 280 wicket was probably about par.

William Porterfield: Yes we said that, we thought 270 was about par, and they got about 20 odd, too many over that there. But it was a game where things were in our control, there was a couple of big overs in there, and there was a couple of, we were just a bit lackadaisical at some stages in the field, which is inexcusable really.

But no I don't think we were too far away in general with the ball. I just think that we had a bit of a platform set up there after the first twelve overs. And we just, think it was three overs, we just lost two wickets, and there was a lot of poor decisions throughout that.

But that's not a preparation thing, that's just a mental thing. And we've got to go away and just reassess our decision making. Just have a think about the game, as much as anything. I don't think we're too far away.

Barry Chambers: I think it's a long time since we've got a mauling, I suppose you could describe by a fellow Associate like that. Do we really need it to be a competitive game? I think maybe the 13 v 13 just, we don't really play that very well?

William Porterfield: I'm not sure, obviously it's good, the warm up games, to give the lads a run out and get them out there in the middle. I don't really like the term Associate. And I don't like any Associate using that term. I think you're ranked in the world wherever you are. And I don't think they should be discriminated against by where you are positioned and all that. But no Scotland played a very good game of Cricket and hopefully they can keep that up and build on that throughout the competition, and do well for themselves.

Barry Chambers: Two of our Bowlers who maybe wouldn't be in the first choice eleven, Andy McBrine and Max Sorensen were certainly putting their hands up. I thought Max bowled particularly well, and Andrew very economical?

William Porterfield: Yeah well I wouldn't say there's a first choice eleven just as yet. I think that lads are getting their opportunities, and that's why we have these games as well. As you said 13 on 13, and you can play as many as you like. But obviously there's a lot of options out there, whenever we have so many on the park.

Barry Chambers: Does it make it more difficult for you as a Captain, having maybe 8, 9 Bowlers, you don't know who to turn to at times?

William Porterfield: Yeah it does, you're looking to get lads a run out. And it does make it difficult at times, because you want lads to get an ample run out. You obviously want them bowling where they're kind of going to be bowling. You're not just going to 3, 4 overs here and there, you want them bowling their 8 to 10 overs.

But I thought Andrew McBrien bowled fantastically well, and Maxi bowled well. Even Youngy who bowled pretty much at the start, within the first 15-20 overs he had bowled 5. And then to come back and bowl the last over from that end, he bowled fantastically well. and that shows us what he's got as well.