Pace our biggest shortcoming - Porterfield

Ireland captain William Porterfield chose not to dwell on the dropped chance early in the innings that allowed Hashim Amla to soar to yet another ODI century, but he did admit that coping with accurate bowling at high pace was the greatest struggle for Associate nations spending four years in near total absence of such attributes.

Since losing Boyd Rankin to England, the Irish have had no-one of the requisite height or pace to severely test a batsman's reflexes, whether it be the opposition or their own players in the nets. This was very apparent against South Africa as any dreams of pursuing their distant target were shattered by Dale Steyn and Kyle Abbott.

"Outside of a few countries there's not a lot of bowlers who consistently get it over 140kph and to have three in your side is a great thing to have," Porterfield said. "I obviously wouldn't mind a couple as well if we can produce them.

"I wouldn't say it's daunting but if they come out and bowl well like that they can make it difficult, and they managed to get those early wickets. It was obviously a massive total, but having lost those early wickets we struggled to get any kind of platform to have a go at the end."

Somewhat surprisingly given South Africa's vast total and the eventual margin, Porterfield remained upbeat about elements of his side's display, identifying morsels of comfort amid the wreckage of a first tournament defeat. He was most critical of Max Sorensen and Kevin O'Brien, who were unable to back up John Mooney's exemplary new ball spell and thus allowed Amla and Faf du Plessis to settle.

"We did very well in stages," Porterfield said. "Max and Kevin would have liked to start better and support John who bowled very well up front, but it's small things like that, if they'd started a bit better there... I thought the spinners bowled very well considering they were only one down through that middle period.

"I was very pleased with the way we kept going in the field as well, down the back end there was a lot of enthusiasm and energy shown. It's quite easy to drift away but no-one shied away from the task of taking the ball in the field, which was pleasing."

As for Ed Joyce's drop of Amla, Porterfield was adamant that, like the result itself, he would not be compelled to dwell upon it. "There was a big chance to take out Hashim and he made us pay," he said. "You're not going to get many chances from him especially on such a good wicket.

"It's disappointing but we couldn't dwell on it when we were out there, we had to get on with it, but they played well. You've got to put it behind you quickly, at the back end of the tournament the fixtures come pretty quickly for ourselves."

Next up is Zimbabwe in Hobart, before India in Hamilton and finally Pakistan in Adelaide.