Canada T20 Match Report

Eighteen year-old Hiral Patel was the hero for Canada as they defeated Ireland by four runs in a tense Twenty20 Cricket match in Sri Lanka at the Associates T20 Series. It was Patel's debut, and his 88 not out set a massive target for Ireland to beat. Ireland won the toss and chose to field, but it could have been an error, as they posted a wonderful 176/3 - a whopping 8.80 runs per over.

Andre Botha was the only Irish players to take any wickets; bowling both Rizwan Cheema and Ashish Bagai, as well as bowling and catching Umar Bhatti with the second last ball. Patel's unbeaten 88, Cheema's 34 and Bagai's 42 set Ireland a large score to overcome. Six other Irish bowlers were used to try and defeat Patel, but his batting was far too strong, scoring eleven boundaries. The Irish bowling economy was disappointing, with Trent Johnston's 6.50 (25 runs from 24 balls) Ireland's best score.

Ireland needed 177 runs from 20 overs, and were constantly playing catch-up. The openers started well - Porterfield and Niall O'Brien had a partnership of 51 for first wicket, in less than five overs. The Irish batsmen had to be very aggressive, and thus mistakes were much more likely. Wicketkeeper Niall O'Brien was Ireland's highest scorer with 50, Gary Wilson made 26, and Paul Stirling 22. Opener Porterfield scored 19, Andre Botha posted 11 runs, and Andrew White was 18 not out. Due to the aggressive nature of the twenty overs, Ireland attempted to go for extra runs at every opportunity. Thus both Kevin O'Brien and John Mooney were run out for 5 and 9 runs respectively. Botha was also run out, trying to meet the required 8.80 runs per over required.

The match went down to the last ball, and if White could have hit a six, Ireland would have won. This morning, that was not to be, and Ireland lost by four runs, ending with an impressive 172/8. On another day, perhaps Ireland would have not had as many run outs and Kevin O'Brien could have stayed batting and significantly helped our cause.

Full Scorecard

Ireland play Sri Lanka A again tomorrow (08:30 GMT) and then take on Canada in a rematch on Sunday at 06:00 GMT.