BELFAST (Cricket news) William Porterfield was happy coming into the One-Day International series against Zimbabwe after lack of game time post the finger injury he picked up during the South African series in July, but feels rain robbed his side of 10 World Cup qualification points after a bouncing back with a superb batting display in Game 2.
Porterfield, 37, has scored 4,301 runs in 144 ODIs for Ireland and has recently hit three consecutive half-centuries for the first time in his career demonstrating his character and experience to contribute to the Irish top-order in this format.
He scored 63 in the opening match of the South African series before injury intervened and lessened his involvement in that three-match encounter. Porterfield has hit 75 and 67 in the first two matches of the current series against Zimbabwe.
Speaking from the team hotel, he said: “It's disappointing we didn't manage to get the full 100 overs in on Friday – we were in a pretty strong and confident position at the halfway mark. I think 280 on that surface was a little above par, so we were very confident we could go out and defend that. Unfortunately the rain hampered us.”
“In terms of personal performance, I haven't had much game time but it’s been pretty good preparation spending time around the T20 squad – the whole build up and training there. So I felt pretty good coming into the series, the only thing I guess was about getting a bit of time in the legs – fielding for 50 overs and batting for a while in the middle is something you can't replicate in training. But I felt pretty good coming in, and hopefully, I can carry that into Monday as there’s a big 10 points up for grabs.”
“The lads are feeling confident from bouncing back from the first game where we were a little bit off with both bat and ball. Again, it was disappointing not to get the win, but it gave the squad great confidence.”
The third ODI of the series is scheduled for Monday at 10.30am.
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