Cricket:Ireland's Will Porterfield will captain an ICC Combined Associate and Affiliate XI against England in a three-day match at the world governing body's GCA ground at Dubai Sports City as the latter prepare for their upcoming series against Pakistan .
Porterfield helped Ireland inflict a hammer blow on England during their stuttering World Cup campaign last spring. But so much of that astonishing match in Bangalore was about Kevin O’Brien’s whirlwind hundred and the heartening news for Andrew Strauss’ tourists is that the all-rounder is not here this time.
“I hope we can get another result, like we did in March,” said Porterfield. “But in this form of the game, they’re number one. So it’s not going to be easy.” Porterfield’s fellow Irish international Boyd Rankin, Paul Stirling and George Dockrell are included in the ICC side that contains three players from Afghanistan, two from Namibia and one from the UAE as well as two from Scotland.
