It is still an England side resting their entire World Cup squad but, embarrassingly for the visitors, the 48 runs margin of defeat at Trent Bridge on Saturday flattered them, with the final three wickets adding 129 with the pressure off.
No fewer than nine Ireland batsmen reached double figures but not one made 50, four of them scoring between 39 and 43 with even Harry Tector failing to continue his elite form.
For the world’s fifth best ranked ODI batsman it is almost home from home today having filled the gap between the India T20 internationals and this series with games for Gloucestershire.
“I’ve only played a few home games but happy to share any local knowledge and it will be nice to play here again,” said Tector yesterday.
“We know if we play our best cricket we can beat England tomorrow but we have to stay in the game for longer than we did on Saturday. The final scoreline made it look closer than it was but the way Barry, Craig and Josh batted at the end was really encouraging.
Despite being dismissed 11 short of a 12th ODI half-century – he has also hit four hundreds – Tector is still averaging more than 50 in the format but the 23-year-old remains level headed,
“They are nice numbers to hear but they are not everything,” he says. “My challenge is to put in match-winning performances and just trying to get better as a cricketer.
“I was lucky in that I made my Ireland debut at 20 so although I was definitely out of my depth I had a lot of scope to get better and fortunately have been able to improve quickly and learn from my mistakes. I’m still only 23 and now hungry to get better and be the best player I can be.”
After today, Ireland have no more cricket until December when they will play three ODIs and three T20Is against Zimbabwe – the scheduled Test match has been dropped – and then it is likely to be another two month before a full seven-match series against against Afghanistan, now put back so that it can be staged in the UAE.