LONDON Ireland captain William Porterfield said his side had 'given everything' after they came within a whisker of adding to their country's record of shock cricket wins against Sri Lanka.
The only non-Test team left in the World Twenty20, Ireland performed brilliantly in the field to restrict Sri Lanka to 144 for nine in their Super Eights clash at Lord's here on Sunday.
But having been 87 for one they crumbled in the face of pressure bowling from spinners Ajantha Mendis and Muttiah Muralitharan, as well as unorthodox quick Lasith Malinga.
In the end they finished agonisingly in sight of their target at 135 for seven and went down by nine runs to a Sri Lanka team still to lose a match at this tournament.
'The lads gave everything,' said Porterfield. 'That's what I asked for before the game and they left nothing out there.'
'We are obviously a bit disappointed we lost the game but if you went around every lad in the changing room and asked them 'could you have given any more?' they couldn't have. To restrict a side like Sri Lanka to 140-odd was a fantastic effort.'
'I thought we were really good in the field and we batted pretty well before just coming up short in the end,' added Porterfield, a member of the Ireland squad that beat Bangladesh and Pakistan at the 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean.
Ireland's Niall O'Brien had a fine all-round match. The Northamptonshire wicket-keeper starred in the field with three catches and a stumping before making 31 despite being restricted in his running by an ankle injury.
It was a display appreciated by Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara, well caught by opposing glove-man O'Brien when the keeper was stood up to the stumps.
'I think it was a great performance,' said Sangakkara. 'The way he kept was absolutely brilliant and he backed that up with some very good batting. It was fortunate for us he was struck with an injury.'
'But I think the way the Irish team played, I am sure it was very encouraging for them and for Ireland as a cricketing nation.'
'They are going to get stronger and stronger as long as they get some good young cricketers taking up the game.'
Sri Lanka were indebted to an innings of 78 from Mahela Jayawardene, their former captain.
He too was impressed by Ireland, saying 'Especially in Twenty20, you can't under-estimate any team. If you make a couple of mistakes it's quite difficult to come back into the game.'
'They bowled very well up front, picked up a couple of wickets and we were on the backfoot.'
Ireland, despite this defeat, still have a chance of reaching the semi-finals.
They will need to beat Pakistan heavily in their final Super Eights match at the Oval on Monday and hope Sri Lanka defeat New Zealand by a wide margin if they are to go through on run-rate as one of the top two teams from Group F.
Had O'Brien, who originally injured his ankle in their first round win over Bangladesh, stayed fit it might have been a different story.
Fellow opener Porterfield, who also made 31, said 'He's a tough character, a great character and just soldiers on.
'It did hamper him a bit but there was no chance of him asking for a runner because he came into the game with the injury. He didn't even ask the question, it was never in his head, he just kept going.' —AFP
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