CRICKET: Call it suffering in the heat, call it mixing up the batting and bowling orders, call it "just a warm-up match for the Under-19 World Cup" but Ireland deservedly lost this friendly to a busier and more disciplined Uganda side in Colombo yesterday.

The margin was 41 runs, but the Irish will know they were out-played in every facet of the game.

The Ugandan bowlers were consistent, their batsmen patient and quick to latch on to anything loose, and their fielders were athletic and focused. While Ireland showed glimpses of all those qualities, they could not sustain it.

The Irish didn't start badly, reducing the Africans to 36 for two early on.

But then Jimmy Okello and skipper Hamza Almuzahim put on 105 for the third wicket as Ireland bowled far too many four-balls and extras.

Through the work of spinners Greg Thompson and Gary Kidd, they managed to peg Uganda back and at the end of the first innings, 218 would have seemed a reasonable total considering Ireland's strong batting line-up.

But the batsmen never showed the application they managed against Scotland and were all too often out playing poor shots. And there was a conspicuous absence of any gameplan by batsmen in the middle and lower order.

Only Andrew Poynter (59) and, to a lesser extent, Fintan McAllister (34) showed what they were made of.

The first match of the tournament proper takes place on Sunday against Zimbabwe, and if Ireland are to get through to the quarter-final stage, as they intend, their performances in the blistering Sri Lankan sunshine need to improve.

The Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq (35),will only play matches on a selective basis after a recurring back problem forced him to miss the final Test in the home series against India.

"It is not a career threatening problem, but it does become a nuisance if not taken proper care off," Inzamam said.