No reason why we can’t go and beat Pakistan & USA: Paul Stirling | ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, 2024
Despite two defeats in two, Ireland can still mathematically make it through to the Super 8sA second consecutive defeat at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York has left Ireland on the verge of elimination in the ongoing T20 World Cup, but the team’s skipper Paul Stirling has vowed that his side will do everything in their power to ensure that they make it to the Super 8s. Ireland slipping to defeat against India was not a surprise, but they entered the clash against Canada, the lowest-ranked side in this T20WC, as heavy favorites. But they suffered a shock defeat despite winning the toss, falling short by 12 runs after conceding 137 with the ball.
Ireland can still, however, mathematically make it through to the Super 8s, and Stirling said in the aftermath of the Canada defeat that he still firmly believes that his side can progress. “Yeah, we’ve got two huge games – still massive every time you put on the shirt you want to go and win, but no reason why we can’t go and beat USA and Pakistan,” Stirling said after the Canada loss. “We need to play a hell of a lot better if we’re going to want to do that. But different conditions we know them slightly better and will certainly be given it as best a crack as we can.”
Unquestionably, Net Run Rate will come into picture if Ireland are to make it through to the Super 8s. But Stirling made it clear that NRR is something that will not be in their mind when they take on both USA and Pakistan at the Central Broward Regional Park Stadium Turf Ground in Lauderhill. “To be honest I don’t think so, no,” Stirling said, when asked if Ireland will have one eye on NRR. “I think we just want to play as good a cricket as we possibly can. I’ve sort of hammered for at least the last year that if we don’t play our best cricket, we will not win games of cricket. So, we need to get back to our best for next week.”
Prior to June 7 (Friday), the team bowling first had won each of the first two games in New York. In fact, New York hadn’t even witnessed a 100+ team score while batting first. But on the day, Canada managed to 137 on the board despite losing 4 wickets inside the first 8 overs. Ireland felt short by 12 runs with the bat, but Stirling claimed that his side lost the game in the first innings, with the ball. “Coming into today’s game, I thought possibly winning the toss and bowl we could have maybe restricted them to a lot less than 140 in the end, maybe like a 120 was what we had in our head. I think 140 was a pretty good score out there,” the Ireland skipper said.
“You saw even if you beat the infield and played good cricket shots it didn’t go for four. So, all that combined, I think 140 in theory was a lot more in practice.” As things stand, Ireland are on course to crash out of the first round of the T20WC for the second time in the space of three World Cups. They made the Super 12s in the 2022 T20WC, but did not make it out of the first round in 2021 after slipping to defeat to Namibia. Asked if it’s ‘frustrating’ to lose to associates and teams ranked lower than them, Stirling said that he has no regrets because, ultimately, the reason Ireland fell short was because they got thoroughly outplayed.
“I wouldn’t say it’s frustrating, no. I think knowing from where we’ve come from – it actually doesn’t surprise you. It’s not a huge thing, it might be in different levels of the media, but we certainly know not to take anyone lightly from where we’ve come from and that’s just what happened today. “They played better cricket than us for three hours and they won the game, simple as that. That doesn’t really, for me, matter what their tagline is, associate or full member or what, they just played smarter cricket, better cricket all day than us and they won.” If you’ve not downloaded the Cricket.com app yet, you’re missing out. Play Fantasy on Cricket.com NOW! Download the App here.