Johnston Frustrated at Ireland's Missed Opportunity for World Cup Victory

Ireland's Coach Trent Johnston was a frustrated man following Ireland's narrow defeat to Pakistan in Sylhet.

Having bowled excellently to restrict the Pakistani batting to 119 for 6 in their 20 overs, Ireland, despite a decent start, were finally out for 105 in 19.3 overs.

Johnston felt sorry for his hard working team who have passed up a huge opportunity to with at a World Cup, and that doesn't happen very often.

Barry Chambers: Trent I suppose in some ways a close defeat like that, it's harder to take than some of the more comprehensive ones?

Trent Johnston: Yeah certainly harder to take than a couple of days ago. We certainly bowled very well today, on that wicket, a fresh wicket. We took wickets in the first six, which we haven't done. Our fielding is still very ordinary. I think we probably gave them 12, 13, 14 runs in the field. That was obviously a telling factor. And I think we probably froze a little bit when we went out and batted, to be honest.

Barry Chambers: We just couldn't find boundaries could we, after there was three in an over, but there were very few after that?

Trent Johnston: Yeah, I just think that they obviously did their homework on our batters. They cut off where our boundary balls were, and we didn't have a backup plan to go to, which is disappointing.

We've spoken for the last two weeks about our bowlers having a Plan B and C. Our batters have been doing the job up until now, and they certainly didn't have a Plan B and C to go out there and hit some boundaries.

We only needed six runs an over. I would presume our scoring ball percentage would be very low. And we allowed them to bowl to us, which is extremely disappointing, because we had the quality of player up the top order to, if we go out there and be positive against them, and chasing a total like that, we should have chased it down with two or three overs to spare.

Barry Chambers: It's obviously disappointing that you haven't been able to put the whole game together in one match. I mean the batting has been good up to now, but the bowling has been a wee bit loose. But never at any stage did the three all gel together?

Trent Johnston: No, we've never fielded well in any game that we've played in, so that's certainly something. We batted well against Australia and New Zealand, possibly because we had the freedom to go out there and do that as we were chasing high totals.

It's just disappointing, I feel sorry for the girls, because they're going to sit back and reflect on today, it may not be the next couple of weeks, it will be like in a month's time, or six month's time, and they've passed up a huge opportunity to win in the World Cup, and that doesn't happen very often. So we've got to learn from that. We've got a big game to go in three days time against Bangladesh, I presume.

We came into this tournament ranked 10th, we certainly don't deserve to leave the tournament ranked 10th, but you know, that doesn't always happen. We win this game here tonight, and you get lucky in a two horse race, we could have left this tournament in 5th place in the world.

We haven't deserved that, if we're honest with ourselves. We need to come here in a few days time, probably have a rest tomorrow. Get the girls away from cricket, have a rest tomorrow. Keep training hard on the 2nd and then we play on the 3rd, under lights here, the last game here in Sylhet.

Barry Chambers: They'll be looking to finish on a high, won't they. You deserve a win at the tournament, I think your play has deserved that?

Trent Johnston: I think they have yes. And I think their work ethic has deserved that, you know, that's been shown over the last two months. I've asked a hell of a lot of these fifteen girls, and there's a couple of other reserves at home, that aren't here with us. You know Gym at seven o'clock in the morning two days a week, then training at YM an hour on a Tuesday and Thursday night in snow and rain all that sort of stuff. Hitting balls on weekends, I couldn't have asked any more from them on a commitment basis. But we just need to get out there and back our ability and execute our plans, and you know our inability to do that has left us 0-4 at the present time in the Tournament Barry.