Heroic tail just fails to deliver

Cricket: The Leinster CC grounds at Rathmines was no place for the faint-hearted yesterday as Ireland made a mighty recovery only to lose by 17 runs in the second of the three-day series against the English Cricket Board (ECB) X1.

Chasing 227 for victory, after top scorer Peter Gillespie and skipper Kyle McCallan had put on 116 invaluable runs for the fifth wicket, the Irish tail just failed to wag enough, but all credit to an ECB attack which didn't cave in.

The ECB batted first and Steve Adshead and Quentin Hughes put on a useful 56 for the first wicket and Hughes went on to be ECB's top scorer with 55. And 226 for 8 looked useful, given the events of the previous day at Malahide.

When Ireland had lost Jeremy Bray, Conor Armstrong, Niall O'Brien and Botha for 76 runs, the prospects were gloomy. Enter Gillespie (73 runs, 94 balls, two sixes, six fours) and McCallan (43 runs, 68 deliveries, four fours), who took the score to 192 before McCallan went in the 43rd over.

Ireland then lost Dom Joyce and Andy White before the Mooney brothers made a fight of it; Paul, alas, was run out and John was the last to fall.

Today's match in Malahide starts at 10.30 and not 11 as earlier flagged.

English Cricket Board (ECB) X1

S Adshead c Neely b P Mooney 38

Q Hughes b Botha 55

C Boroughs lbw b White 1

S Chapman lbw b J Mooney 11

C Mole lbw b McCallan 17

A Hall run out 39

S Foster c Bray b Neely 10

S Humble b Botha 24

C Brown not out 6

E Wilson not out 2

Extras (B4, LB10, NB6, W3) 23

Total for 8 wickets, 50 overs ... 226

Did not bat: M Sharp.

Fall of wickets: 1/56; 2/66; 3/78; 4/114; 5/160; 6/179; 7/213; 8/221.

Bowling: P Mooney 9-0-39-1; G Neely 7-0-46-1; J Mooney 8-0-25-1; A White 10-0-45-1; K McCallan 10-2-22-1; A Botha 6-0-35-2

IRELAND

J Bray by Wilson 4

C Armstrong Chapman b Sharp 10

A Botha c Adshead b Foster 41

N O'Brien c Hughes b Sharp 2

P Gillespie b Humble 73

K McCallan c Mole b Humble 43

D Joyce c Mole b Humble 2

A White b Wilson 0

P Mooney run out 11

J Mooney b Wilson 5

G Neely not out 0

Extras (B1, LB9 NB2, W7) 19

Total all out, 37.2 overs ... 210

Fall of wickets: 1/7; 2/36; 3/44; 4/76; 5/192; 6/193; 7/194; 8/194; 9/209; 10/210.

Bowling: E Wilson 9.2-1-39-3; M Sharp 10-1-28-2; S Humble 8-0-37-3; S Foster 8-0-34-1; C Brown 5-0-32-0; S Chapman 7-2-30-0

ECB X1 WON BY 17 RUNS.

Umpires: S Daultry, E Gilmour.