Ireland Under 19's lost the first warm up game in the build up to the Under 19 World Cup in Australia, when they lost narrowly to Northern Territory Under 19s in Darwin.

The Irish rested skipper George Dockrell, as well as Alistair Shields and Barry McCarthy, with Shane Gtkate taking on the captaincy role.

Graeme McCarter was the pick of the Irish bowlers taking 4 for 52 as NT racked up 273 for 6 in their 50 overs on the excellent track. The other wicket takers for the Irish were Getkate (1-43), and Ben Wylie (1-27).

An opening stand of 109 between Ryan Hunter (94) and Robin Kelly (57) put Ireland right back in the game, but despite a fine unbeaten 54 from Shane Getkate, the Irish came up just short, ending on 263/6.

Manager Brian Walsh was upbeat despite the narrow loss saying;"We looked like winning the match until the last few overs when we just failed to get over the line. Nevertheless a lot of positives are taken from our first match since the Grasshoppers match on 1st June. The other six arranged matches since then have been rained off. This was a good Northern Territory Under 19's team who have had success in the state competition with three victories against other state sides in last season’s competition.

"This was an excellent workout against a talented team. Thursday’s match is against an even stronger team who will effectively be the Northern Territory senior team. Hopefully we'll give a good account of ourselves in that game too."