Ireland conceded the series with a four-wicket loss in Game 2. © Getty

Ireland captain Andrew Balbirnie was at a loss of words to explain the side's dismal batting performance as they slipped to a four-wicket loss in the second ODI against England. While Ireland did get to 212 for 9, and had England in trouble at 137 for 6, they had to fight their way back from being 91 for 6 after opting to bat.

Curtis Campher, playing his second game, scored his second consecutive half-century to give the bowlers something to play with as he made 68. "It's tough, I can't really put my finger on it whether it is rustiness or time in the middle but Curtis doesn't seem to be struggling so I guess we just need to find a bit of rhythm," Balbirnie said. "We've just got two days, it's going to be a new wicket, so we just have to sit down and have a chat about how to go about it a bit better.

"For the second time around, we haven't given them a total but they've really put their hands up. Josh coming in; he had a good spell in the middle where he had a couple of quick wickets and he changed the game at that time."

Balbirnie was all praise for Campher once again as the allrounder dismissed James Vince and Tom Banton, especially with Jonny Bairstow scoring freely from the other end. Campher became the first Ireland player to score two half-centuries in his first two ODIs and the 21st overall. "He's batting at seven now but he's putting pressure to bat a bit up the order. He looks very much at home and his tempo today was very good. He got us to a respectable total today and got us something to bowl at," the captain said.

"He's very useful with the ball, he's got that wicket-taking ball and he's just someone who is really impressive. He's a great person to captain because you can talk to him and he tells you exactly what he wants to do or at least what he's trying to do. He's got that ability to change the game with ball. He's not the tallest in the world but he can get the ball to rise, he can get it to skid under. People want to play with him and people want to bat around him. He's been exceptional but we have to be better as a batting unit."

Ireland have now lost their first two games in the ICC Cricket World Cup Super League and will hope to walk away with some points and end the series 2-1. "Yeah look we have two days and [well] obviously there's not a whole lot you can do in between those days," Balbirnie said. "But we're kind of going to make sure that we're specific with what we do with the ball and the bat.

"It's another opportunity to play the best team in the world, and in their own backyard; we don't know when we'll get that chance again. We just got to make sure that we rest well because it's not been easy to head straight into ODI cricket having not played a lot. So, we'll [try to] do all the right things and try to make sure we get our rest and then again come back again."