Ireland finish with a victory

Cricket/ Under-19 World Cup: The Under-19 World Cup concluded in Sri Lanka yesterday with a showdown between old rivals Pakistan and India.

On Saturday Ireland comfortably defeated Uganda by six wickets in their last match in the plate competition.

Even by modest Irish cricket standards you could argue this tournament was a disappointment. Winning just two games out of six (the other was Namibia) to come 13th out of 16 does not read particularly well.

The performances have been inconsistent, with a couple of the so-called stars not putting in the sort of displays they are capable.

But equally, that does not tell the full story. This competition has fallen in the middle of Ireland's off-season, and before the first of their two warm-up games this team had not played together since last August. Most of the other teams had plenty of match practice. Even England had just come off an extensive tour to Bangladesh and, later, Malaysia.

So, that Ireland came within four runs of beating the English last week is an achievement of note. A little more steeliness in the batting that day would have resulted in more than a few red faces in the English camp.

A few days later, they should have had another test nation scalp when they put on 304 in 50 overs against New Zealand with Eoin Morgan hitting a wonderful 124 off 122 balls, ably assisted by Andrew Poynter (76).

Only for a freakish innings of savage batting from Kiwi Tom Southee, who made 92 off 55 balls, the Irish would have beaten a test country for the first time at this level. In his four other innings in the tournament, Southee made a total of just 21 runs.

Morgan ended up as second-highest run scorer with the third-best average in the competition while opening bowler Niall McDarby finished in the top five wicket-takers.

So with the senior Irish team doing so well it is encouraging there are a few youngsters coming through to put pressure on the older guard. It is thought at least four or five of the senior team will retire after next year's World Cup. With Morgan already a fixture in that side, watch out for left-arm slow bowler Gary Kidd, off-spinner James Hall, leg-spinner Greg Thompson, medium pacer Neil Gill, wicket-keeper/batsman Fintan McAllister and Gary Wilson.

The experience they have gleaned from being here in the sub-continent with its intense heat and different playing conditions will stand to them as they move toward the ICC Trophy of 2009 and the 2010 World Cup.