A match they might just as easily have won slipped out of Bermuda's grasp at the Jaffrey's Sports Ground today as they were again left to reflect on a less than impressive bowling performance. Ireland, who had beaten Bermuda comfortably in their last two ICC Trophy encounters, were made to fight all the way on this occasion as they eventually reached their target with just eight balls to spare.

But they were assisted in no small part by both indisciplined bowling and blunders in the field which left Irving Romaine and his men sitting at the bottom of the pile after the second round of World Cricket League matches.

Having posted a challenging total of 275 off their 50 overs - their best ODI total in several months - Bermuda's attack were unable to defend it, although Dwayne Leverock and his ever-reliable spin and medium pacer Janeiro Tucker both made a brave attempt.

Others such as pace bowler Kevin Hurdle, who conceded 29 in three wild, wicketless overs and young Delyone Borden, who snatched two scalps but gave up 58 runs in eight overs, must shoulder much of the blame for the four-wicket loss.

Coach Gus Logie had spoken after Monday's 10-wicket thrashing by Kenya about the batsmen's responsibility to put a total on the board which his bowlers could realistically defend. And yesterday they responded magnificently, led by openers Clay Smith (52) and Dean Minors (51) who combined for a stand of 79 in less than 14 overs, a whirlwind start which the rest of the early order continued to build on.

Skipper Romaine contributed 26, Lionel Cann 44 and David Hemp 35. And while the innings seemed to lose direction during the middle overs when a score in excess of 300 still appeared on the cards, there can have been few complaints about the eventual total of 275. But ultimately it still wasn't enough, Ireland opener and man of the match William Porterfield (112) stroking a chanceless and beautifully paced century to steer his side to victory.

Coach Gus Logie expressed overall satisfaction after his side's narrow defeat to Ireland yesterday but conceded some players were still failing to learn from their mistakes.

And while he admitted it had been a "disappointing" bowling performance, he said the failure of batsmen to build on a solid start was also cause for concern.

"I think at the moment I'm quite happy with the overall effort today," said the Trinidadian. "It augurs well for the future. I'm trusting again that the self-belief is there and that's what we've got to be working with. This has to be another learning experience. You hope that players learn from their experience out in the middle but unfortunately some guys are taking a lot longer than others. The bowling was disappointing. But even so, 275 you know, we still felt that with the start we had we could have capitalised a little bit more, possibly got 300 runs.

"One of the things we saw in the opposition was one batsman (William Porterfield) get a hundred. We had a few guys get into the 50s and not carry on. We still have to rectify that, but in all it was a much improved batting performance from the last game we played (133 against Kenya). As for the bowling, Logie added: "Certainly the extras (31) mounted up.

"We have some young and inexperienced bowlers, we are having to ask some of them like (Malachi) Jones to carry the bowling along with Mukky's (Mukaddem) and Sluggo's (Leverock) experience. "But (Kevin) Hurdle was very disappointing today, he needs to look in the mirror.

"In a game like this, to have somebody like Lionel Cann having to bowl the end overs is not what you want. It was never in the game plan, and that's something we need to look at. But it was a good effort from the players otherwise, they should take heart from this and hopefully in the rest of the tournament we'll see them improving.

"Certainly we'd like to bottle the batting, put it up on the shelf and bring it out in the next game. I think you have to look at the confidence level of some of the guys. Obviously the bowling department came in for a little bit of stick today. We'll look at that and see who we have in reserve, who could replace some of those guys."