Ireland lost their opening Group B Men's T20 Cricket World Cup tie against Sri Lanka in Colombo, beaten by twenty runs in game one of four that they will play in the group stages.
It was a disappointing defeat for Ireland as, having curtailed the Sri Lankas in the early stages of their innings, Ireland's fielding let them down as one of the tournament hosts plundered runs in the back end of their innings to take them to 163 for 6 at the end of 20 overs.
Ireland was on course to at least give them a chance of chasing down the 164 required to win when Harry Tector and Lorcan Tucker threatened an upset.
However, with their dismissal, Ireland lost four wickets from overs 15 to 17 to halt their charge as Sri Lanka, in the end, won the match after 19.5 overs with Ireland all out for 143.
Earlier in the day Ireland's captain Paul Stirling, in front of a crowd of around 22,000, won the toss and decided to put the Sri Lankans into bat, his side picking an extra batter and leaving out fast bowler Josh Little
The decision to field first paid off early on as the home side struggled against the Ireland attack.
Sri Lanka reached 86 for 4 in the 14th over with veteran George Dockrell taking two wickets opener Pathum Nissanka for 24 and Pavan Rathnayake for five.
Dockrell also took two catches in that spell as Ireland eyed the opportunity to restrict the Sri Lankan hosts to a low total.
However an unbeaten 54 from wicketkeeper Kusal Mendis from 43 deliveries, and a swashbuckling 44 for just 19 balls from Kamindu Mendis, took Sri Lanka past the 160 mark with Ireland also guilty of some very sloppy fielding.
In fact, Ireland dropped six chances in the Sri Lankan innings as the home side added seventy-seven runs in the last six overs, with 59 of that total coming in the last 24 deliveries.
In reply, and needing 164 to win, Ireland lost Stirling for six runs in the fourth over, bowled by Theekshana with Ireland on 24 for one.
Harry Tector joined opener Ross Adair in the middle with Stirling’s dismissal with Adair stepping up with 34 runs off just 23 balls to lay a platform for Ireland before he was bowled by Hasaranga in the 8th over with the score 56 for 2.
Tector and Lorcan Tucker took Ireland past 100 before Tucker was caught at long on for 21 off the bowling of Wellalage as the Irish wicket keeper looked to go big in the run chase and was followed by Tector who fell for 40 in the 16th over with Ireland 113 for 4.
With the dismissal of both Tector and Tucker, Ireland lost momentum as Ben Calitz was bowled for only four in the 17th over off the bowling of Theekshana who also dismissed Gareth Delaney on the first ball
Curtis Campher (13) Mark Adair (10) George Dockrell (9) Mathew Humpries (0) and Barry McCarthy (not out 0) were well behind the run chase before Humpries was the last wicket to fall, caught in the deep as Ireland were dismissed, all out in the very last over.
Ireland's next Group B game is against Australia on Wednesday with a 9.30am Irish time start while the Sri Lankans now move onto a game against Oman on Thursday.
