IRELAND’S TWENTY20 BATTERING by Bangladesh could have knocked their confidence for six but come Saturday evening, Gary Wilson hopes that the defeat will be another example of how this team does things the hard way.

The visitors ran out winners by a whopping 71 runs when the sides met in the first of three internationals in Stormont on Wednesday. Ireland were well below their best and problems with both bat and ball cost them, Wilson admitted, but he sees no reason why they can’t regroup and win the series.

“Seventy runs is more than a comprehensive defeat in Twenty20 cricket. We’ve been battered there,” Wilson said after Wednesday’s defeat. “I don’t believe that Bangladesh are 70 runs better than us and I think the Twenty20 rankings table will show that.”

“We probably were 30 or 40 runs short with the ball, we gave them 30 or 40 runs with the ball and in the field combined, and we can probably get 30 or 40 more runs with the bat. That’s where we’ll hopefully look to make it up. I still believe we’re more than good enough to beat Bangladesh in the next two games and take a 2-1 series win.

We certainly don’t like to do things easily anyway. We love losing the first game of a series and then clawing it back somehow, so hopefully we can do it again this time. We have more than belief.

Phil Simmons returns to the squad after missing the first international due to a family bereavement and while important, captain William Porterfield said that none of the team’s mistakes can be put down to the coach’s absence.

“Everyone knows their roles in the side. We’ve played pretty much everyone that’s here in Dubai and the way things ran, the roles in the team, things ran pretty smoothly.

“If Simmo’s not here, he’s not here. He obviously had a bereavement and we’re sorry to hear about that but that can be in no way accountable for the things we did wrong.”

Porterfield also defended the decision to play Max Sorensen, who was 2-42 in his four overs, instead of Tim Murtagh.

The last couple of Twenty20 matches Max has played, he’s got man of the match. He’s bowled well and he’s gone for not many runs and he’s taken wickets.

I think the way he came back there — he went for two sixes on his first two balls and that was as much between myself and him getting things wrong — and then the way he came back in those next 10 balls from there was pretty good. I’m pretty happy with the way Max has bowled.

Tickets for the match this evening (5pm) and tomorrow’s game (4pm) start are available at the gate or on www.ticketmaster.co.uk

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