Ireland lose World Cup warm-up to Sydney grade club

Ireland suffered a five-wicket defeat at the hands of Sydney grade club Randwick Petersham in their opening World Cup warm-up game.

Captain William Porterfield scored 74 to help Ireland reach 255-7 but their hosts were able to chase that target down with 37 balls to spare.

Ireland had looked well placed at 203-3 with 10 overs remaining, after Ed Joyce (49) and Niall O'Brien (31) chipped in with solid contributions.

But the innings stalled after that and batting conditions improved for the home side at the Coogee Oval as the day progressed.

And Randwick Petersham were always up with, or ahead of, the required rate with Alex Sams proving the anchor of their innings with a fine knock of 80.

Nathan Price weighed in with 51 and skipper Adam Semple saw the hosts over the line with 33 off 37 balls, Craig Young proving the best of the Irish bowlers with 3-68 in nine expensive overs.

Ireland only arrived in Australia earlier this week but Porterfield refused to use any travel fatigue as an excuse for their defeat.

"I wouldn't say it was to be expected. You can use that as an excuse but I'm not having it to be honest," Porterfield said. "We've had three days of good training and we should have been a lot better than what we were today.

"We weren't good enough in all three facets. We had good stages with the bat, we set a couple of good platforms, but we didn't manage to kick on and get that one big score.

"I don't think we were anywhere near where we can be with the ball which was disappointing."

Ireland have further warm-up games against Scotland and Bangladesh this week before their World Cup opener against the West Indies in Nelson, New Zealand, on February 16.