Bangalore, Mar 3: A bitterly disappointed England captain Andrew Strauss vowed that his side would bounce back into the tournament after their three-wicket defeat at the hands of Ireland in the cricket World Cup here.
"It was a bitterly disappointed defeat for us. We thought we had done a reasonable job with the bat and also with the ball initially. They were down five wickets for 100-odd runs.
We weren't expecting such an innings from Kevin O'Brien,"Strauss said after the match which Ireland won largely due to heroics of O'Brien who hit the fastest World Cup ton in 50 balls.
"Our World Cup dreams are not over yet, we need to set things right soon. Kevin O'Brien played really well and made the most of the powerplay. They deserve the victory," he said.
Strauss said the three-four drop catches by his side,including the one of O'Brien by himself when the Ireland batsman was yet to reach his century, cost them the match."We had not been doing well in the fielding department in the tournament. Today the three-four drop catches cost us the match," he rued.
He also informed that a couple of players, including key batsman Kevin Pietresen, suffered niggles in Wednesday's match but they would be fit for the next match.
"We can't do much but to lick our wounds. We have a couple of niggles, KP and Swann got injured today, hopefully they will be fit for the next game."
For the Irishmen though, Wednesday's win was the biggest in their careers."It has been the greatest day of our lives, the best performance that we have put up," captain William Porterfield said.
"We believed in ourselves, Kevin O'Brien was brilliant.We knew that we are capable of winning, we believed in ourselves. Alex Cusack and John Mooney too chipped in and credit to the lads for their effort," he said.
"We had done well in the warm-up games. We had nearly chased down 300 against New Zealand and we believed in ourselves that we can chase down 328 today," he added.
Porterfield, however, said his side will not be over excited after the win and they would look to do better in the coming matches."We have played a great game today but it is just winning one game though. We have still got four games left. We are hoping to repeat such performances and stay in the race for the quarterfinals. We want to qualify for the quarterfinals."
O'Brien, who bettered former Australian opener Matthew Hayden's earlier World Cup fastest hundred off 66 balls by 16 balls, said the enormity of the achievement was yet to sink in.
"Not being able to believe it. I am quite speechless and yet to sink in. I got a bit of luck and things went my way. If we would have gotten out soon, it would have been a boring game for the supporters and so I decided to chance my arm, it paid off." PTI
