Ireland's Simply Not at The Races as T20 World Cup Ends in Defeat by Netherlands

Irish Skipper William Porterfield says Ireland prepared well for the 2016 T20 World Cup, but that's where the good story ends.

Having contrived to lose their opening match against Oman, Ireland's performances didn't reach any higher in their abandoned match against Bangladesh and defeat in today's Six Over Honk against The Netherlands.

It appears that competitive T20 for Ireland will now almost disappear at an international level for a long time. So the team will be concentrating on the ODI's which will come thick and fast during the summer, a format much more suitable to the present Irish Team.

Then there's also the four day format where Ireland lead the way, and will hope to stay there.

Barry Chambers: William, hasn't been a Tournament to remember for Ireland, couldn't get over the line today?

William Porterfield: No it hasn't. I'll make no excuses for that, we weren't good enough over the, well thirty odd overs that we played, or whatever. Wednesday's results was what shot us in the foot really. I think that obviously you could say what you like about the weather, but when we have been on the pitch we haven't been up to scratch.

Should that be the full game against Oman, the eight overs we got in against Bangladesh and the twelve overs today. We weren't at the races, for whatever reasons. It's hard to put your finger on, because I thought we were well prepared coming in, and were doing a lot of good things. But it's easy saying that and doing that before you come to a Tournament, and we didn't do that on day one. And that set us back a bit.

Barry Chambers: Looking at the game today, I suppose one of the few positives we can take from it is the return to form of George Dockrell, who was back to the way we know he can bowl?

William Porterfield: Yes he bowled very well. Obviously got a bit of assistance there from the pitch, but he still had to go out there and do it, and he did. So that's been great for Ireland, and also bowling the over in the Power Play, which is never easy as a spinner, two men out. So he's done a fantastic job. But yeah as I said, I think we lost more in those last four overs in the bat, as opposed to anything with the ball.

Barry Chambers: What do you put that down to, we were in a very strong position, did the wonder catch lift things for them from Seelaar or?

William Porterfield: Ah look it was a great catch. Take nothing away from him, Kevvy struck it cleanly, it was a great catch, you wouldn't necessarily say that was the turning point. We still needed 8 an over from then, 8.5 an over. Obviously the pitch was tacky, but with eight wickets in hand, and with some smart cricket we could have gotten a lot closer, and over the line.

Barry Chambers: That's the T20 gone for a few years at least. I think we don't have any fixtures on the horizon. But we have got I think eleven, at least eleven ODI's this year?

William Porterfield: Yeah and that's great. But as you said I don't know when the next T20 fixtures are, but we're looking forward to those one day fixtures as well. They're still a few months away, 16th of June is our next game. So building up to that.

The lads will have to prepare well for those, and because they're games we have to start winning at home as well. We've got Sri Lanka and Pakistan this year in the four Full Member teams if you like, and then we've got potentially more as well throughout the summer.

So they're going to be big games for us. It's a format of the game we play reasonably well, and we played very well at the World Cup. We've got to now pick ourselves up for those games as well, and continue our form in the four day stuff.