Porterfield carries Irish load, helps team to 243

With a win against Bangla, new Cup entrants can gain permanent ODI status

Opener William Porterfield scored 85 and big hitter Kevin O’Brien 48 to lift Ireland to 243 for seven against Bangladesh in the World Cup Super 8s on Sunday.

Neither team can qualify for the semi-finals of the World Cup and were playing to avoid finishing bottom of the group of eight. Ireland will also gain permanent one-day International status if they win this match.

On a dry Kensington Oval wicket offering little assistance to bowlers apart from a little bounce, Porterfield and Jeremy Bray put on 92 for the first wicket, batting cautiously. Bray was the first to fall, run out by a smart piece of work by spinner Saqibul Hasan off his own bowling.

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Porterfield hit the ball to mid-off and called Bray through. Bray was caught watching the ball and hesitated, leaving Saqibul time to field the ball and run out Bray for 31 from 70 balls.

Eoin Morgan’s miserable World Cup continued when he was run-out having scored only five by sharp fielding from bowler Shahadat Hossain.

Hossain was drafted in at the last minute when bowler Syed Rasel tripped over a boundary rope in the warm-up before the match.

Wicketkeeper Niall O’Brien started brightly and had scored 10 when he reverse swept a delivery from Saqib into the hands of Tamim Iqbal at short fine leg and Ireland was 128 for 3.

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Porterfield, dropped on 42 when Mohammad Rafique put down a straightforward caught and bowled attempt, was joined by O’Brien’s big-hitting brother Kevin. The two put on a quickfire 48 before Porterfield was out with the score on 176.

Porterfield was caught behind the wicketkeeper by Rafique as he tried to paddle the ball over the infield. His 85 was scored in 136 balls and formed the backbone of Ireland’s innings.

O’Brien smashed a six onto the roof of the Garfield Sobers players’ pavilion as he and captain Trent Johnston cut loose with some big hitting that entertained a growing crowd, allowed into the Oval for free after 90 minutes of the match.

O’Brien fell for 48 in the 48th over, run out by substitute fielder Farhad Reza as he went for a second run, and Johnston made a sparkling 30 in 23 balls. Andrew White became Ireland’s fourth run out victim.

–SIMON HAYDON

SCOREBOARD

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Ireland: W Porterfield c Rafique b Mortaza 85, J Bray run out 31, E Morgan run out 5, Niall O’Brien c Iqbal b Shakib 10, Kevin O’Brien run out 48, T Johnston c Nafees b Mortaza 30, A White run out 4, D Langford-Smith not out 6, A Botha not out 1.

Extras: (11-lb, 1-b, 6-w, 5-nb) 23. Total (for seven wickets, 50 overs) 243.

Fall of wickets: 1-92, 2-101, 3-128, 4-176, 5-215, 6-233, 7-237.

Bowling: Mortaza 10-1-38-2, Hossain 9-1-51-0, Razzak 9-0-48-0, Rafique 10-0-42-0, Hasan 10-0-44-1, Ahmed 2-0-8-0.