By Pragya Tiwari,IANS,
Mohali : A dejected Ireland captain William Porterfield said the controversial leg before decision against Gary Wilson was one of the things that cost them their World Cup Group B encounter against the West Indies here Friday.
Chasing West Indies’ 275, Ireland were cruising with Ed Joyce (84) and Wilson (61) adding 91 runs for the fourth wicket. They lost Joyce and Kevin O’Brien in quick succession but Wilson kept their hopes alive.
In the 42nd over, Wilson, when playing a shot off West Indies’ skipper Darren Sammy, was adjudged leg before by umpire Asoka de Silva. Wilson went for a referral but the decision stayed.
On seeing the replay on the giant screen, he appealed to the umpire to recheck but De Silva after a consultation, stuck to his original decision.
Porterfield said the decision was a setback to their quarterfinal aspirations.
“That’s one of the things that cost us the game. You use the technology to eradicate a bad decision. In this case it did not,” Porterfield said after Ireland’s 44 run loss.
“He was trying to play a shot and the ball hit the bat as well. I do not know what the third umpire conveyed.”
Porterfield was later fined 20 percent of his match fee as Ireland bowled one over short in the stipulated time frame. The team was fine 10
percent.
The defeat virtually puts an end to Ireland’s expectations to make it to the quarterfinals as they have only two points from their four games. They now play the South Africa Feb 15 and the Netherlands Feb 18.
“We had got into a pretty key position and could have taken the Powerplay but we were forced to delay the Powerplay. The decision put us back. It was a chaseable score but we lost wickets at crucial time. We were pretty confident and happy at the halfway stage,” he said.
Porterfield, however, lauded his bowlers’ performance.
“They had done a great job in the first 15 overs,” he said.