Porterfield Looking for Batting Improvement as Ireland Lose Final Warm Up Match Against Bangladesh

Ireland Captain William Porterfield was fulsome in his praise of Bangladesh's dynamic duo of Shakib Al Hasan, 58 not out and Mushfiqur Rahim 59 not out for their brilliant batting which took the game away from Ireland.

Porterfield however recognised that Ireland actually bowled well and were on top in the early part of the Bangladesh innings, but when the Al Hasan and Rahim got going it was just good batting that won the day. Porterfield was disappointed that Ireland could not follow suit and get some partnerships going until it was too late, when the dynamic hitting of Stuart Thompson came into play.

So plenty for Ireland to work on before Monday and the start of the tournament proper.

Barry Chambers: William I suppose it's fair to say we were given a bit of cricketing lesson there by Bangladesh?

William Porterfield: Yeah they played very well. You've got to give a lot of credit to them. We're slightly disappointed with how things went. I thought we started very well in the first ten overs with the ball.

But the two lads were set `Shakib' and `Mushy', they played very well, made it difficult for us. We're going to obviously asses that and take a look back on it, and see what we could have done better. But I think you've got to give a bit of credit to them as well, they played very well.

Barry Chambers: You opened with spin at both ends, and for a while we were actually on top, weren't we, Andy McBrine, George Dockrell, Paul Stirling all bowling well in those early overs?

William Porterfield: Yeah, we bowled very well, and I think to come through a power play, especially bowling as many overs of spin as we did, I think we had five overs out of six of spin there, and to come through it as we did, going at less than a run a ball, in around thirty, not sure quite sure what the figures were, but we were in a good position, but we just never managed to pick up wickets after we got them three down, coming into that tenth over, we just never managed to peg them back from then. And as I said the two lads got going and played very well.

Barry Chambers: The seamers didn't seem to just bowl where exactly they wanted, and there were a lot of boundaries?

William Porterfield: Yes, if you miss your Yorker by not very much, I think you're going to struggle. But not the fact you struggle, I think the lads played good shots. There was a good few very good balls bowled, and a few very good shots played.

I think when you've got two lads that hit 360 around the ground, and can also hit it straight back over your head, it can be very difficult to bowl to, especially when they're going in full flow. So I think that the boys held their nerve pretty well and executed it quite a bit for long periods of time what they wanted to do. Whether maybe it was or plans more than our execution at that time, that could be something to look at.

Barry Chambers: And the batting, I suppose the positives yourself in good form and Stuart Thompson who struck one of the biggest sixes I've ever seen?

William Porterfield: Yeah, he's been striking the ball very well, and that's going to give him a lot of confidence. When you've got lads on your team that can do that, it's very pleasing.

I think yeah I played ok, I think that I had to, we were looking at maybe to have picked the rate up and got it going slightly quicker, or slightly sooner, but I think the way we lost wickets, we just never managed to build a partnership, until kind of Thommo came in. So that was slightly disappointing for ourselves that we kept losing wickets.

But whenever you've got lads coming in, and the rate is up over ten, it's very hard to go from ball one in these conditions. And we've got to try and get two lads set, and when they're set, we've got to try and capitalise.