Cricket: Ireland skipper William Porterfield was left with mixed feelings after his side's exit from the World Cup was confirmed with a 131-run defeat to South Africa on Tuesday.
Ireland, who produced the tournament's first upset - a three-wicket win over England - nearly two weeks ago, saw a below-par batting performance undo what was an otherwise respectable performance with the ball.
Chasing 272, Ireland were all out for 141 as Morne Morkel and Robin Peterson grabbed three wickets each, while Jacques Kallis took two to condemn Ireland to defeat in the 34th over.
There may be questions asked of Ireland about letting their opponents fight back from a tight spot, when some disciplined bowling and tight fielding had left the Proteas at 117 for five, but Porterfield said: "We started off pretty well.
"We got a couple of wickets up front. It's always important to get wickets to peg them back. I thought we did that pretty much throughout. We were happy enough at half-time as chasing 270 wasn't out of our reach. But it's just that we lost wickets."
A dead-rubber tie against Holland beckons on Friday but Porterfield remained pleased with Ireland's performances throughout the tournament, which has seen them gain many admirers and has raised calls for them to be included in the next edition.
"We've shown a lot of competitive spirit," he added. "A lot of the games have come down to last 10 overs. We've put ourselves in winning positions, which is what we'll take from this tournament. Today we lost a lot of wickets and were always behind. But the tournament has been good and we'll take a lot of positives from it."
JP Duminy was South Africa's hero, smashing 99 off 103 balls, and his captain Graeme Smith refused to let the initial setbacks mar a result that sees them progress to the quarter-final.
Smith said: "We put ourselves under pressure with some stupid run outs but the guys responded really well after that, especially JP who batted really well under pressure.
"He really held things together, and then Colin Ingram, who hasn't played for a while, came in and batted well. I think you can always nitpick, but there were some good signs today."