![\"Reuben](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/2514999.jpg\")
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Reuben Wilson. Photo: Tyler Miller\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n
Reuben Wilson and his skipper Olly Riley gave supporters a glimpse of the future in Windhoek on Monday, but their efforts were in vain as Sri Lanka inflicted a second defeat on Ireland at the U19 World Cup, by 106 runs.<\/p>\n
A wicket each at the top of the Sri Lanka innings showed why it would be no surprise to see the pair of 19-year-olds opening the attack for the senior team \u2014 if not before the end of the decade, then soon after.<\/p>\n
Clontarf speedster Wilson made the initial breakthrough, took a second wicket in a later spell, and effected a run-out with a powerful throw from deep cover, while Pembroke all-rounder Riley found an edge behind to get into the wickets column too.<\/p>\n
The five bowlers Ireland used all showed improvement from Friday\u2019s opening defeat by Australia, but after those early losses the well-drilled Sri Lankan line-up eased to 267-5.<\/p>\n
In reply, opener Callum Armstrong \u2014 on debut and three days short of his 16th birthday \u2014 gave a good account of himself with a tidy 37 before he had to hobble off injured, but hopes of a famous win diminished when Friday\u2019s star Rob O\u2019Brien chopped on for 17.<\/p>\n
Ireland slipped to 96-6 before a lively stand of 46 from 49 balls between Wilson and Riley showed the other side of their games, and again raised morale among the travelling fans.<\/p>\n
Both hit two mighty sixes \u2014 Ireland won that contest 4-1 \u2014 and while Wilson fell for 32, failing to clear extra cover, his skipper was unbeaten on 31 when the innings ended on 161.<\/p>\n
Armstrong, who had resumed his innings at the fall of the ninth wicket, was last out for a top score of 39, and Riley paid tribute to his fighting qualities.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s something that comes with most Irish teams I\u2019ve been involved with. We talk about it a lot \u2014 regardless of skills, you can always bring heart and fight to a game,\u201d Riley said.<\/p>\n
\u201cCallum was incredibly impressive there, the way he came back out at the end even though he was clearly in a fair bit of pain.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ireland will need to beat Japan on Thursday to qualify for the Super Sixes stage of the tournament, and Riley is expecting his side to come out on top.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re pretty confident, especially with how we\u2019ve gone up through the gears in our matches so far. We should be in a pretty good place for that game,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reuben Wilson. Photo: Tyler Miller\/Sportsfile Reuben Wilson and his skipper Olly Riley gave supporters a glimpse of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252805,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8755,61,60,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-252804","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-cricket","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}