Porterfield disappointed after Ireland's tame exit

William Porterfield was crestfallen after Ireland’s World T20 match against the West Indies in Group B was abandoned following heavy downpour here on Monday night. Lagging behind the Windies in net run-rate, Ireland were dumped after the washout here at the R Premadasa Stadium.

After being invited to bat first, Ireland had managed a modest 129/6 in 19 overs. Given West Indies’ batting might, that was an eminently achievable total but the Irish skipper said he would rather go out with two defeats than not completing a match. “It would obviously have been a massive challenge (to defend),” said Porterfield. “You obviously seen pace off the ball, lost some early wickets as well.

That might have played into their hands especially had we got a few early wickets. But you never know. We would rather go out of a tournament having two defeats as opposed to not knowing. Obviously disappointing for ourselves,” he rued.

The opener was asked if he thought it was unjust that a team was out of the tournament after playing just one match.

“It’s obviously disappointing, there’s not a lot we can do. We played six months back in England this summer and we had as much rain as anything else. It’s just been a frustrating year in terms of weather. Obviously when you come into a big tournament like this you don’t want the weather to play a part but obviously it’s not in anyone’s control. It’s just one of those things, you got to move on I suppose,” he explained.

Like England in last World T20, Windies are progressing to the Super Eights without a single win in the group stage and skipper Darren Sammy hoped history would repeat itself. “We believe we can win. Yes, I am aware of what happened back in the World Cup in the Caribbean, but the most important thing is our belief and we just got to do well in the Super Eights.”