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

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.