Ireland face must-win clash with Scotland
CAPTAIN William Porterfield insisted he had no regrets about his team selection or decision to bat first after Ireland crashed to a 107 runs defeat by Zimbabwe in their first Super Six game in Harare. After restricting the hosts to 211 for nine, Porterfield was confident of picking up two valuable points in their bid to reach next year’s World Cup finals in England, but it all went awry as they slumped to 18-3 and 54-5, before being bowled out inside 35 overs. It leaves Ireland facing a mustwin game against Scotland tomorrow and then hope other results go their way before they face Afghanistan in the last Super Six game on Friday when victory could be enough to qualify. Eight of Ireland’s wickets fell to spin but they opted to leave out Simi Singh — despite taking three wickets in the last game — and recall Gary Wilson to bat at No 7. ‘I never envisaged bowling more than 15 overs of spin, we have [Paul] Stirling as a second spinner and we have taken wickets with seam in the past. So I was happy with the first half and the four seamers (with Tim Murtagh the pick, taking 336),’ said Porterfield. ‘I knew the pitch was going to dry out and knew we were going to face 35 overs of spin, but we didn’t play well enough and they never let us back in the game after taking those early wickets.’ In the end, the entire Ireland innings did not last long and slow left armer Tendai Chisoro, who shared the new ball, dismissed Porterfield and Ed Joyce, for a second-ball duck, in his first four overs. Only Stirling put up any resistance but when he was run out for 41 from 70 balls, Ireland were down and, unless they beat Scotland tomorrow, they will be out.
FORMER Derbyshire allrounder Shiv Thakor has been handed a six-month ban by the England and Wales Cricket Board. He was put on the sex offenders’ register for five years in November after exposing himself to two women last summer.