CRICKET WORLD TWENTY20:IRELAND COACH Phil Simmons has called on his bowlers to come to the party ahead of the final two Super Eights games at the World Twenty/20.

The Ireland squad travelled down to London yesterday after their 83-run defeat to New Zealand at Trent Bridge on Wednesday and will tackle Sri Lanka at Lord’s tomorrow (live on Sky Sports 1 from 1pm), before finishing their Group F fixtures against Pakistan at The Oval on Monday.

Simmons admitted Ireland’s goose was cooked after two overs of New Zealand’s innings as they raced to 32 without loss before going on to post 198 for five.

“With the bowling we need a 100 per cent improvement. With the batting, I don’t know what percentage I would put on it, but the main fact is we need to stop losing so many wickets together.

“We are scoring quick enough, and after eight overs against New Zealand we were only seven runs behind them. But they had no wickets and we had four wickets down.

“If we can hold on to wickets up front and go into the last seven overs with seven or eight wickets, I think we can get up to the 170 or 180 that we need to get,” said Simmons.

The main problem lies with opening bowlers Boyd Rankin and Peter Connell, who have not made an impact with the new ball.

Simmons is likely to return the 6ft 8in Warwickshire bowler to his starting XI against Sri Lanka, a side with the form opening partnership in the competition.

Sanath Jayasuriya and Tillakaratne Dilshan average 75 in three games and put on 81 in yesterday’s game against Pakistan at Lord’s. If they keep that sort of form up tomorrow, Ireland could be in for a long day in the field.

Sri Lanka inflicted one of Ireland’s heaviest defeats in the Caribbean two years ago, running through the batting order to bowl them out for just 77 in Grenada.

They were missing Lasith Malinga that day due to injury, but he is around this time and firing on all cylinders. He could well torment Ireland, although the greater threat could come from their brilliant spin attack that is spearheaded by Muttiah Muralitharan and new sensation Ajantha Mendis.

On the injury front, Niall O’Brien’s scan on his ankle knock turned up nothing untoward, with Simmons picking from a full squad for tomorrow’s game.

It wasn’t the end to the good news, as Ireland team manager Roy Torrens has been awarded an OBE for his services to cricket and soccer in Northern Ireland.

The 61-year-old former international opening bowler won 30 caps for Ireland.

He also represented Northern Ireland three times in amateur soccer internationals.