Sports

Bangladesh opt to bat first

Irish captain William Porterfied won the toss and invited Bangladesh to bat first in the first match of the tri national series at Malahide Dublin on Friday.

Bangladesh`s regular captain Mashrafe Mortaza missed the match due to a one-match ban and stand-in captain Shakib Al Hasan said that he, too, would have opted to field on a green track.

Bangladesh included Rubel Hossain in place of Mashrafe, the only change from the team that played the third ODI against Sri Lanka on April 1, ESPNcricinfo reported.

The hosts were forced to make one change,too, bringing in Stuart Thompson in place of the experienced Ed Joyce who has a back problem.

There was some cloud cover around Malahide with chances of rain later in the day.

Bangladesh: 1 Tamim Iqbal, 2 Soumya Sarkar, 3 Sabbir Rahman, 4 Shakib Al Hasan (capt), 5 Mosaddek Hossain, 6 Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), 7 Mahmudullah, 8 Mehedi Hasan, 9 Rubel Hossain, 10 Taskin Ahmed, 11 Mustafizur Rahman

Ireland: 1 William Porterfield (capt), 2 Paul Stirling, 3 Andrew Balbirnie, 4 Stuart Thompson, 5 Niall O`Brien (wk), 6 Gary Wilson, 7 Kevin O`Brien, 8 George Dockrell, 9 Barry McCarthy, 10 Tim Murtagh, 11 Peter Chase