Cricket: Ireland's opening game of the Tri-nations series against Sri Lanka fell victim to the dismal weather that has affected Scotland over recent days, with the game at the Grange ground in Edinburgh finally abandoned just before 3pm this afternoon.
Heavy overnight rain in the Scottish capital had left the outfield sodden, with the players remaining at their hotels after umpires Marais Erasmus and Ian Ramage called for a 1.30pm inspection.
That was pushed back an hour after more rain fell, with the umpires abandoning the game as they believed there would not be sufficient time for the bowler run-ups to dry out ahead of the 4pm cut-off.
Irish captain William Porterfield summed up his side’s frustration over missing out on a chance to take on the World cup semi-finalists.
“It’s frustrating, especially playing over here in Scotland which is as close to Irish conditions as you’re going to get,” said the Warwickshire player.
Porterfield is optimistic that tomorrow’s clash against Scotland will go ahead and believes Ireland face a tough task against the hosts.
“Scotland have been doing well, they’ve been playing some good cricket in the CB40 without getting the results they deserved and they had a couple of good wins against Holland last week,” he added.
Porterfield confirmed that Niall O’Brien will miss the match to play a Twenty20 game for Northamptonshire, with Surrey’s Gary Wilson continuing behind the stumps after playing there in the two victories over Namibia last week. Clontarf’s Andrew Poynter is in line to take O’Brien’s place.
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