ALTHOUGH Ireland can still technically progress to the final four by defeating Pakistan heavily and Sri Lanka also beating New Zealand comfortably in the last match, they could have put all four teams level on two points with victory.

They made a decent start to their chase with Porterfield playing an uncharacteristic dash before edging Muralitharan behind.

Their hopes of victory receded, however, when wicketkeeper Niall OBrien, who shook off an ankle problem to play in the Super Eights stage and aggravated it in avoiding a run-out, became the third of three wickets in two overs.

Porterfield paid tribute to his hobbling opening partner when he said: Hes a tough character, a great character and just soldiers on.

It did hamper him a bit but there was no chance of him asking for a runner because he came into the game with the injury.

He didn't even ask the question, it was never in his head, he just kept going.

Ireland headed into the final five overs needing 54 runs but two wickets in as many balls by paceman Malinga further dented hopes.

If you go into the last few overs needing that many an over its never going to be easy, Porterfield said. We lost our way slightly in the middle but don't take anything away from the effort - we did really well.

Sri Lanka were indebted to their former captain Mahela Jayawardene, whose 78 elevated them to 144 for nine.

The early departures of in-form Tillekeratne Dilshan and Kumar Sangakkara meant they had to readjust their target score.

We were in a situation where we needed some runs as well as to bat through, said Jayawardene. To be honest, I was a bit disappointed as I should have probably batted out the last two overs as well.

They bowled really well, took a couple of early wickets, but we stuck to our basics, we had a game plan to get 140-150 because we knew at Lords it would be a very good score to defend with the bowlers we've got.

We didn't think too big, did the simple things well and got a win which was the most important thing.

Having been rocked by the associate country, however, Jayawardene added: In Twenty20 cricket you cannot underestimate any team because if you make mistakes it is quite difficult to come back into the game.