Sri Lanka start their tour of England with a series win against Ireland - Ireland cricket team is nothing less than a surprise package in the world of cricket. While playing cricket in major tournaments it has never failed to surprise the world of cricket. It has always been known for the never dying spirit to perform. Many players like the O’Brien and Porterfield have been favourites and represented many cricket teams in domestic cricket. The team has played some excellent cricket over the past and the year 2014 saw a test nation touring the country of Ireland to play a two match ODI series against the home team. Sri Lanka in their long tour of England included a two match ODI series against Ireland. The Sri Lankans saw the great duo of Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene retiring thus this series proved to be ideal to test the correct combination before the series against England. The side touring Ireland didn’t have the speedster Malinga and included few new faces like Ashan Priyanjan and Kithuruwan Vinthanage.
The first match of the series saw a brilliant bowling performance from the home side while the second was a complete washout.The damp conditions of the pitch took no time for William Porterfield to decide to field first after winning the toss. While the Irish captain put the opponents into bat his bowlers too performed the way the skipper wanted them to. Tim Murtagh took charge of the Irish bowling and was successful in taking his first wicket of the match in the very first over of the game. His second wicket of the series came in the 47th over of the match. He was one of the best bowlers of the match as he took 2 wickets giving only 21 runs in 10 overs. Max Sorsen another Irish fast bowler impressed in this series as he bowled a well-disciplined line and made it difficult for the batsmen to score runs of him. He gave away only 31 run in 8 overs thus he maintained a very successful economy rate. The bowling of Ireland was remarkable as they made full use of the home condition and made life hell for the batsmen. These two bowlers shined separately and bowled some remarkable spells.
Sri Lankan Batsmen on the other hand in failed to impress. Kusal Perera failed to score a single run while Lahiru Thirimanne scored only 8 runs after playing 24 balls. Upul Tharanga the opener used all hi experience and played a mature innings to score 24 runs and his knock along with Dinesh Chandimal helped the Lankans to build on the innings in the first match. Angelo Mathews the all-rounder played a good role as he too anchored the innings in the first match. He scored 30 runs in this series which proved to be critical in the first match. Ashan Priyanjan and Nuwan Kulasekara played a vital role in this series win as both the batsmen with their brilliant batting skills took their team cross the 200 mark. Kulasekara scored 42 runs and also took 2 wickets while bowling.
The Lankan bowlers performed well as Suranga Lakmal and Ajantha Mendis both took 3 wickets each. The only two batsmen to score runs for the home side were William Porterfield and Neil O’Brien. These two batsmen showed their temperament in testing conditions and scored 37 and 33 runs respectively. Due to a washout in the second match the series was won by Sri Lanka as they won the first match against the home side. This marked a good start of the tour for the visitors while the home team and fans were definitely disappointed.