The Ireland Under-19 side made a disastrous start to their Youth World Cup campaign yesterday with an eight wicket loss to host nation Sri Lanka in their opening Pool D match at the Sinhalese Sport Club in Colombo.
Irish skipper Peter Shields won the toss and elected to bat, but opener Alan O'Prey was caught while attempting a drive in the first over. It got worse in the second over when the other Irish opener Andrew White was clean bowled.
Only four of Ireland's batsmen made double figures, with Ryan Haire top scoring with 39. Matters would have been worse had it not been for the 22 extras conceded by Sri Lanka.
Haire and John Mooney brought the score from a disastrous 27 for five to 94. But then Haire failed to respond to Mooney's call and the North County player was run out, leaving Ireland 94 for six.
Thereafter, only Dwayne McGerrigle offered any real resistance, and in his 23 he hit two huge sixes. Sri Lanka took only 89 minutes and 23.2 overs to reach their 135-run winning target. Ireland now face Australia tomorrow.
