Need for speed ultimately proves Ireland’s undoing

Before the World Cup, Cricket Ireland chief executive Warren Deutrom said that it would be a "failure" if Ireland missed out on the quarter-finals.

That is what it would have felt like for the players as Ireland traipsed off the Adelaide Oval, having been comfortably beaten by Pakistan. “Sorry we let people down,” Ed Joyce tweeted after the game.

Ireland’s cricketers will not be short of those lauding their spirit and skill as they return home. But this side is far too ambitious, professional and talented to be content with such praise.