Ireland beaten despite O'Brien effort

An explosive half-century from Niall O’Brien was not enough for Ireland as they lost by four runs to Canada in the quadrangular Twenty20 series in Colombo.

Chasing a victory target of 177, Ireland looked to be on course as opener O’Brien helped steer them to a promising 90 for two inside 10 overs, with William Porterfield and Paul Stirlingthe men dismissed for 19 and 22 respectively.

Niall O'Brien put in a valiant effort, hitting 50 off 34 balls, but Ireland fell just five runs short of their target against Canada

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But wickets fell at regular intervals following Stirling’s removal, with Canada paceman Umar Bhatti claiming 3-26 to restrict the Irish to 172 for eight. O’Brien fell for 50 off just 34 balls, including five fours and a six.

Gary Wilson was the only Ireland player to offer any middle-order resistance with 26 off 22 balls.

Earlier, Hiral Patel did the damage with the bat for Canada, hitting an unbeaten 88 - including nine fours and two sixes - as his team posted a score of 176 for three.

South African-born Andre Botha took all three wickets during a four-over spell that cost 35.

The result sees both sides on two points from their two games, having won one and lost one, and a win for Sri Lanka A against Afghanistan would see them go to the top of table on four points.