Crumbs of comfort in Plate for Irish

IRELAND’S young cricketers beat Namibia in the Plate competition of the U19 World Cup in Sri Lanka yesterday.

It was a fine win but came a little too late to make any meaningful impact on the competition.

Close defeats to England and New Zealand were the real opportunities to show the world that Ireland can be competitive against some of the better countries. However, that they did so well in those games (losing by four runs to England and by three wickets in a thriller against the Kiwis) will have impressed many established teams.