Bangalore, Mar 2: A disappointed England captain Andrew Strauss today blamed poor bowling and fielding for his side's three-wicket loss at the hands of Ireland here and said they will have to quickly address the chinks if they want to go the distance in the cricket World Cup.
"Generally we bounce back and in the past too. We have done that in Test and one-day cricket. We can be challenging and realise where we could prove. We need to galvanise and we cannot afford any slip up in our remaining matches," Strauss said at the post-match press conference.
"We dropped Kevin (O'Brien) and three other catches in the game. Our bowlers could have been better during power play. We were taken by surprise there. You cannot afford to give away so many chances. If you drop a batsman before, it is hard to get his wicket. It is asking for trouble," he said.Strauss gave full credit to the Ireland team for their victory but said another 10-15 runs more (than 327) would have made the difference.
"It is definitely a disappointing day. Another 10 or 15 runs in the last overs could have helped us. You got to give credit to Kevin (O'Brien) and (Alex) Cusack the way they chased the total down. They got a pretty experienced side.They have done it before in World Cups. They get on to their attitude that they have nothing to lose.
"On the two matches that we have played not one bowler but all bowlers suffered in the wickets. But, you got to get more runs quickly than your opposition teams," said the England captain.Ireland captain William Porterfield, on his part, said today's win was "biggest in our country's cricket".
"We have won against Pakistan and Bangladesh in 2007 and lost to England by 48 runs. Going by these, this is the best ever win for us so far on international cricket," he said.
"Kevin's was an unbelievable knock. I admire him for the manner in which he scored runs. Bangladesh loss is gone, we now have to do our best in the remaining matches. We had our strategy and plans and things fell in places," he added.
Kevin O'Brien, who entered his name into record books by hitting the fastest World Cup hundred in just 50 balls, said any sporting success over England was big in his country."It is a fantastic day for us not to say only for our cricket. Any time Ireland beat England whether it is football or rugby it is massive.
We are enjoying every moment. We are now going to consolidate this win to our advantage in the remaining matches in the World Cup," he said.
"England were the favourites to win this match. You cannot just write us off in one-day cricket. Strange things can happen any day. It happens on some occasions we took our chances. As Porterfield had said that we took the powerplay in 31 overs. At that stage we took a chance and came off working our favour," he added.O'Brien had no doubt in his mind that today's innings was his best ever.
"When it clicks I do not look back at all. I said to myself that 100 off 50 balls in World Cup in front of billion people, I is not going to be any better. Lot of people have said that Twenty20 is a game that suits me as I could swing the bat and hit few sixes or so. I will now concentrate on one-day cricket and see what happens," he said.
He also praised the lower-order batsmen for keeping cool to win the match after he was out."We did not panic. Johnston and the tailenders are capable of scoring runs. They did not hit the yorkers and hit the full balls to fours. We knew about it and sat on it. We kept the good balls and hit the bad balls to four and it worked to our victory.
It is a tremendous feeling. We want to celebrate as long as we can."Asked what was going through his mind while batting,O'Brien said, "I was thinking positive. Try and hit as far as I can. It was obviously a tricky situation and the fifth wicket had gone on 111 runs and we were back against the wall.
As I said I took the chances and was using my feet well to score runs and got the ball rolling. From there I do not think that England had any answer for us to be honest.
"The wicket was extremely flat and the ball came off to the bat nicely and it was a pretty small ground and a quick outfield. If you pierce the ball through the in-field for a two or four. When you hit the ball pretty clean you are going to clear the boundary." PTI
