McCarthy's painful football experiment

Daniel Worrall seemed to be having a decent start to his international career, before Paul Stirling decided to make things more difficult for him. Stirling had already sent John Hastings over the boundary and then charged at Worrall in an attempt to do the same. Stirling hammered the ball back over Worrall's head and seemed to have cleared the rope, but it was given as four. Close-ups showed that Stirling may have been robbed of two runs, but the statement he made was no less powerful.

Mitchell Marsh could have had John Anderson when the Ireland No.3 edged to second slip, but the area was left vacant. He could have had Anderson again when he pulled a short ball to fine leg, which was being guarded by Scott Boland. Boland had to dive forward to pluck the ball before it made ground, but he didn't seem convinced that he had taken the catch cleanly. Some replays suggested he had, but with the benefit of the doubt going to Anderson, Marsh was denied again.

After a strong start, Ireland were wobbling and Sean Terry only worsened their situation with lack of awareness off the first ball he faced. Terry was hit on the pads by Daniel Worrall, who turned to deliver a prolonged appeal. The ball was with Australia captain Steve Smith, who saw that Terry had left his crease while the appeal was ongoing, and reacted quickly to throw the ball onto the stumps and find Terry short of his ground.

Ireland's fielding had let them down against South Africa on Sunday, and it did not seem to have improved over the two days. Their first chance came early, in the fourth over, when Usman Khawaja top-edged a pull off Barry McCarthy. Peter Chase had to run in from long leg to take the catch. While he got to it and had the ball in his hands, it then popped out. There was no doubt, it was definitely grassed.

With the match out of Ireland's grasp, all they may have wanted was things to end quickly and fairly painlessly, but they were not even spared that. McCarthy attempted to show some football skills in fielding a Steve Smith drive in his followthrough, but went after the ball with the arch of his foot instead of doing so flush with the heel, and hurt himself instead. The ball squirted towards the non-striker's end, but Khawaja was alert to what was happening and made sure he was safe.