Ireland's Niall O'Brien (right) shakes hands with West Indies' Darren Sammy at the end of their Cricket World Cup Pool B match at Nelson, New Zealand, yesterday. Ireland won the match with four wickets and 25 balls to spare. - AP

NELSON, New Zealand (CMC):

Former one-day captain Darren Sammy has warned his teammates their campaign in the ICC Cricket World Cup will be short-lived unless they begin to execute properly in all three aspects of the game.

West Indies crashed to an embarrassing four-wicket loss to Ireland in their World Cup opener at Saxton Oval yesterday, despite piling up 304 for seven.

"If we continue to play like that, we won't be here for long for sure," Sammy tersely told reporters following the game.

West Indies recovered from 87 for five in the 24th over to top 300, thanks to Lendl Simmons who stroked 102 and Sammy, who slammed an exhilarating 89. They put on 154 for the sixth wicket.

However, the Windies seam-based attack then bowled poorly and Ireland got stuck in, with opener Paul Stirling (92), Ed Joyce (84) and Niall O'Brien (79 not out) all striking high class half-centuries to see their side home with 25 balls remaining.

Three disciplines

"I always believe cricket is played on the day. Like we saw today, 300 was not enough against Ireland. We have to put all three disciplines of the game together on the cricket pitch in order to win matches," Sammy warned.

"So when we bat well, we've got to bowl well and field well and right now we're only doing one of those three disciplines and if we don't correct that ASAP, we will be on a flight back to the Caribbean and won't be in the quarter-finals."

The defeat extended the Windies' recent run of poor form. They were hammered 4-1 in the five-match ODI series in South Africa last month and then crashed to a nine-wicket defeat to England last week in their first official warm-up match.

They piled up 313 against Scotland a few days later in their second warm-up but narrowly escaped with a three-run victory.

Sammy conceded that yet again on Monday, the bowlers had struggled to get it together.

"We didn't bowl well at all. I think half-way through we went into the dressing room with the momentum in our favour and we just needed to pick up wickets with the new ball and that is something that has been plaguing us for the last few series," he pointed out.

He continued: "It's tough. We have not been playing the brand of cricket that allows us to win matches. To recover from [87 for five] to score 300, we really thought we were in with a chance.

West Indies square off against Pakistan in Christchurch on Saturday.