Ireland slump to another defeat

Cricket/C&G Trophy: The gulf in class between Ireland's cricketers and the full-time professional county scene was highlighted again yesterday as they slumped to their sixth defeat from eight matches in the C&G Trophy against Sussex at Castle Avenue.

At no stage did it look like Ireland would enjoy anything but a comprehensive defeat and Sussex will be content with their polished performance as they maintain their position at the top of the Southern Section of the tournament.

Ireland again got off to a bad start. They lost Dominick Joyce second ball to Jason Lewry, the first of six lbw decisions given by the trigger-happy umpires. Jeremy Bray went the same way in the second over with still no score on the board and William Porterfield was soon trudging his own way back to the pavilion as Ireland slumped to 10 for 3.

As they have done so many times before for Ireland, Peter Gillespie and Andrew White then steadied things with a fine partnership of 71 but when White was out (another lbw) the home team soon got back into trouble.

They lost Trent Johnston (4), debutant Kevin O'Brien (23) and Gillespie (51) and a rout looked on the cards at 126 for 7.

But a face-saving stand of 76 between Kyle McCallan (41) and John Mooney (36) meant Ireland were able to post a respectable total of 216, which was not nearly enough but in the end, the Castle Avenue crowd were quite relieved they got that many.

Luke Wright took four wickets for Sussex but was a little expensive, conceding 56 runs off his 10 overs. Veteran leg-spinner Mushtaq Ahmed bowled with good variation ending with niggardly figures of 1-26 off 10.

It was another poor batting display by Ireland with the top order leaving far too much to do for the men coming in later. Not that the front-line bowling attack has been faring much better.

In-form opening batsman Richard Montgomerie made Ireland grovel, his century coming off 106 balls and included 12 fours, and skipper Chris Adams (65) gave him good support as Sussex passed Ireland's total with seven wickets and 13 overs to spare.

As they look forward to tomorrow's historic first meeting with England at Stormont, Ireland know they must improve in all areas if they are to be anything approaching competition for one of the top sides in the world.