Porterfield applauds Irish efforts

Ireland captain William Porterfield admitted his side had given everything after coming narrowly short of another World Twenty20 shock.

The Irish, who followed their World Cup exploits of 2007 by eliminating Bangladesh in the group stages of this tournament, went down by just nine runs to Sri Lanka at Lord's yesterday.

They were contemplating throwing Group F wide open at the halfway stage of their chase of 145, which they reached 60 for one, but the class of Muttiah Muralitharan, Ajantha Mendis and Lasith Malinga told in the end.

"The lads gave everything," said Porterfield. "That's what I asked for before the game and they left nothing out there.

"We are obviously a bit disappointed we lost the game but if you went around every lad in the changing room and asked them 'could you have given any more?', they couldn't have.

"To restrict a side like Sri Lanka to 140-odd was a fantastic effort.

"I thought we were really good in the field and we batted pretty well before just coming up short in the end."