Ireland captain William Porterfield admitted his side's batting had been a let down in the 27-run loss to Bangladesh.
Ireland skipper admits batting was a let down in Bangladesh loss
Ireland captain William Porterfield has called on his side to leave their poor batting display in Dhaka after falling short against Bangladesh in their World Cup Group B opener.
The Tigers looked on course for a big total after an electric start from opener Tamim Iqbal but some tight bowling and regular wickets saw Ireland keep the tournament co-hosts down to 205 all out.
That was a total which could realistically be passed - albeit on an extremely slow pitch - but scores of 38 and 37 from Niall and Kevin O'Brien respectively were the best they managed and they were bowled out for 178.
"It's not hard to work out where we lost this game," said Porterfield. "We let ourselves down with the bat.
"After 50 overs it was pretty good and the way we hauled it back after the first five or six overs in the field was really good.
"You can't afford that many soft dismissals in this tournament but we have to bounce back from this, we can't let it bother us.
"We have to leave the batting here and move on to Bangalore (where they play England on Wednesday)."
Character
Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hasan said he played a backseat role at the interval but was impressed with the self-belief in the home dressing room after posting a modest total.
"I didn't say anything [to the team]. Everyone else was saying we will win by 20 runs so I had that belief in them," he told
Sky Sports.
"They showed their character. It was a really hard game for us. The ball wasn't doing much but our bowlers did a good job and the fielders, for them it was a tremendous game.
"It's going all right now, but it was a very good game. I thought we played really hard cricket.
"Although we didn't bat well, our bowlers and fielders showed great character and support for us. It's good to have support like this and hopefully we can improve ourselves from here."
Shakib also praised the bowling of Shafiul Islam, who claimed four wickets in a decisive second spell.
"He was expensive early on but we always knew he could come back and do the job for his team," Shakib added. "I thought he swung it really well. He put it in the right areas and changed the game for us."
