Ireland cricketers beaten by Australia

Ireland slumped to a nine-wicket defeat to Australia in Benoni on Tuesday, the final defeat of disappointing 2016 for John Bracewell's side.

Ireland have been beaten by Sri Lanka (twice), Pakistan, South Africa and now Australia in one-day internationals this year, with the only bright point a 2-2 series draw at home to Afghanistan.

But those two victories depended on two magnificent centuries from 38-year-old Ed Joyce, who missed this two-match tour to the highveld of South Africa following knee surgery.

After a rapid 48 from David Warner, who took a particular liking to 22-year-old Ireland pace bowler Peter Chase, Usman Khawaja (82*) and captain Steve Smith (59*) put on an unbeaten 126 for the second wicket to chase down Ireland's 198 all out with almost 20 overs to spare at Willowmoore Park.

Paul Stirling slammed a 30 from 27 balls, including three boundaries in four balls off Daniel Worrall, who was making his debut for Australia but is an Irish passport holder who Niall O'Brien tried to persuade to play for Ireland.

John Anderson swept well and kept his focus after several close calls to compile a career-best 39, as Ireland progressed to 121-2 in the 24^th over.

But Ireland lost their last eight wickets for 77 runs as the middle order struggled to build on the strong start.

The slump was summed up by a moment of doziness from Sean Terry, who went walkabout following an lbw appeal on his first ball, took his eye off the ball and was run out by a sharp throw by Smith.

"We got off to a great start but to lose three wickets in 8-10 balls isn't ideal," Porterfield said.

"So its obvious that we didn't get enough runs. The wicket was a little bit up and down and when we lost our way in the middle of the innings it meant that we weren't going to be able to come back from that against good sides.

"We feel that we have done a lot of good things in today's game, we need to be kicking on from 20s, 30s and 40s."