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William Porterfield spoke to the press to give his reaction to Ireland’s four wicket win over the West Indies.

Full hour long highlights of Ireland’s win over the West Indies will be shown on UTV Ireland at 11pm tonight, and every night after Ireland’s ICC Cricket World Cup matches.

One of the big performers with the ball was Andy McBrine, who bowled ten overs for just 26 runs. Porterfield explained the decision to include the second spinner McBrine in the starting XI:

“He’s bowled fantastically well the last couple of months. And that gave us a real headache, and we thought it was the best way to go with it. I think it’s going to be a bit of potential over the courses throughout the competition and see where we’re at in different conditions, where we play an extra seamer or whatever. So good decisions to have and good headaches to be having in these games.”

He also had a lot of praise for the other bowlers in the side.

“As we’ve seen throughout the day, the pitch was a very good pitch. It was very hard to take wickets on. So I think the way the lads stuck at it up front and picked up those wickets there made it slightly harder for them. They couldn’t go as early as they’d liked, and firm on that grind. Even the last 10 or 15 overs was very difficult when you’ve only got the four out. And that’s not the biggest ground especially with the wind. So I thought the lads stuck to their job well and set it up for the batters really”

One huge positive for Ireland was the batting performance, with big partnerships for the first three wickets. Porterfield had praise for his batters and the way they have approached the game and then performed on the day.

“They came at us after a few overs pretty aggressively, and the way the lads stuck at it and kept scoring was great. Obviously, we knew there was a lot more in the tank from what we had been doing. But as I said yesterday, the way we prepared in the nets and how we’ve gone about things, not just on the cricket pitch but mentally as well, and how we’ve prepared has been great, so it’s nice to get the rewards on day one.”

You can listen to William’s press conference in full below:

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