William Porterfield, the Ireland captain, cited a lack of opportunity to take on the world’s best sides regularly as the reason behind his team’s heavy World Cup defeat by India in Hamilton.
The 30-year-old could draw plenty of comfort from Ireland’s performance at Seddon Park where they posted 259, the highest score as yet by any side against India in five matches at this tournament.
However, he was left to rue a batting collapse and the inability to claim wickets with Shikhar Dhawan (100) and Rohit Sharma (64) putting the world champions firmly en route to their ninth successive World Cup victory, a mark bettered only by Australia’s 25 consecutive wins between 1999 and 2011. The defeat leaves Ireland possibly needing to beat Pakistan to make the last-eight.
Porterfield and his team-mates have seen off Zimbabwe, United Arab Emirates and West Indies but have now been beaten by both heavyweights, South Africa and India, they have faced, with a crucial game against Pakistan to come in Adelaide on Sunday.
“I think exposure is a big thing. You probably heard me say it a thousand times, we’ve played nine ODIs against the top eight of the top ten teams in the last four years in between World Cups, which is not a lot when you consider a lot of countries are playing 25, 30-plus a year,” Porterfield said.
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“So that’s disappointing from our point of view to not get that experience and get those games under our belts.”
Niall O’Brien’s 75 and 67 from Porterfield, who put on 89 for the first wicket alongside Paul Stirling (42), had raised Irish hopes but they were no match for their opponents who confirmed top spot in pool B. After a solid start, India reeled Ireland back in, taking their last seven wickets for only 53 runs with Mohammed Shami taking three for 41 and Ravichandran Ashwin finishing with two for 38.
Dhawan and Sharma then put the holders firmly in the driving seat with an opening-wicket stand worth 174. Both openers were out in quick succession, however, Virat Kohli (44 not out) and Ajinkya Rahane (33 not out) held firm to ensure the victory target of 260 was chased down with more than 13 overs to spare in Hamilton.
“We have been confident with the bat throughout. We played very well for long periods of that game today. But is just show how ruthless you have to be the way India batted there,” Porterfield said.
“We could probably have put them under a bit of pressure but we didn’t want to go too hard too soon especially after losing those couple of wickets. We just lost those wickets at crucial times and it slowed us down. We didn’t kick on as much as we would have liked but you have to give them credit as well.
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“I think the skill factor is also there. You have to give a bit of credit to Ashwin. We lost a couple of quick wickets and that slowed us down slightly. Every time we started to pick up a bit of momentum we managed to lose a wicket which kept us back from kicking on to what would have been a competitive total and that is disappointing.”
By the time Stuart Thompson made the breakthrough, bowling Sharma, he and Dhawan had put the holders in charge. Kohli and Rahane merely finished off the job as for their fifth pool B game in a row India bowled out their opponents.
“I think the important thing is for everybody to get runs, to take wickets and to bowl well because in the knockout stages you don’t know who you may need,” Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the India captain, said.
“So it’s important that everybody gets a bit of confidence. All of the batsmen have got a bit of batting, in this game the spinners have done well so everyone is confident.”
Porterfield has insisted that Ireland will be ready for their final pool match against Pakistan as they look to claim another scalp to reach the knockout stages.
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“We’ll take a look at things now moving on to Adelaide, we’re focused on each game as it comes and we’ll have everything behind the scenes ready and it’s just a matter of getting things right from there,” he said.