World Twenty20
Venue: West Indies Date: 30 April-16 May
Coverage: TMS commentary and text commentary on BBC Sport website on selected matches, updates on BBC Radio 5 live and live on Sky Sports

William Porterfield was Ireland's top scorer against New Zealand

Ireland skipper William Porterfield believes his side are in good shape for the ICC World Twenty20 despite Tuesday's 40-run defeat by New Zealand.

Porterfield said the Irish had failed to make the most of good positions against the Kiwis in Guyana.

New Zealand had an opening stand of 104 before posting 187-5 while Ireland struggled, with Porterfield's 34 the top score in a total of 147-9.

Ireland's last warm-up match is on Wednesday against Afghanistan.

Then the tournament begins on Friday night at the Guyana National Stadium with a Group D opener against host side the West Indies.

Captain Porterfield is looking for some fine-tuning against Afghanistan, whose travel disruptions in getting to Guyana meant their opening warm-up match against the West Indies was cancelled.

"We are feeling pretty good and it is just little tweaks here and there," the Irish skipper said.

"There's an over or two in the game that can make a big difference and that over or two can mean a 30-run defeat.

"We did not score many off the first two overs against off-spinner Nathan McCullum and lost two wickets and there were a couple of overs in their innings where we could have cut back on a few boundaries the way we bowled.

"So take those four overs out and it makes it a much tighter game. Those are the margins you deal with in Twenty20 cricket and we just need to iron them out before Friday."

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version