Cricket: Ireland captain William Porterfield was left to rue a "massive missed opportunity" after a batting collapse handed the West Indies an opening ICC World Twenty20 victory by 70 runs in Guyana last night.
Qualifiers Ireland had performed well in the field to limit the tournament hosts to 138 for nine in Georgetown but were bowled out for 68 in just 16.4 overs, the second-lowest score in the short history of Twenty20 internationals and the lowest in any of the three World Twenty20 tournaments to date.
Only Kenya had fared worse, scoring 67 against, ironically, Ireland in Belfast in 2008 and Porterfield cut a frustrated figure in his post-match press conference.
“The way we bowled and fielded we were right in it after the first 20 overs and so this was a massive missed opportunity,” said Porterfield.
“It’s disappointing, not just the fact that we lost, but the way we lost, especially with the bat.
“It’s pretty disappointing getting bowled out for 70 (sic), it doesn’t matter who we’re playing against or what the conditions were like or anything. We’ve got no excuse.”
The captain had been the first to depart in the Irish innings. Having hit the opening ball from Kemar Roach for four runs Porterfield was out next ball, caught in the slips by man of the match Darren Sammy.
And Ireland were in deeper trouble moments later as Paul Stirling and Niall O’Brien followed their skipper back to the dugout as the Irish slumped to 11 for three inside the first two overs.
“We were struggling after the first 11 balls, losing three wickets. It was a struggle to come back from there,” added Porterfield.
“Losing early wickets set us right on the back foot.
“It’s hard to play when we just kept losing wickets regularly. We needed a platform, needed some sort of start and to keep wickets in hand coming to the end.
“And if we’d have scored at a half-decent rate up to that we would have stood a half-decent chance.
“Going four or five down coming out of the first six (overs) you just can’t be in that position.”
West Indies captain Dwayne Bravo, who stood in for the injured Chris Gayle, was understandably delighted to get off to a winning start in front of his team’s own fans.
“I thought it was a very good game and I’m very happy with the guys that played today,” said Bravo.
The hosts next face England in Georgetown on Monday before Ireland face the English on the same wicket 24 hours later.