After facing a challenging start in the ongoing T20 World Cup, Ireland captain Paul Stirling is urging his team to quickly adapt to conditions and improve their performance. Ireland‘s campaign began with a heavy defeat against India, followed by a second loss to Canada on Friday. Despite these setbacks, Stirling remains optimistic about their chances in the upcoming matches against the USA and Pakistan.
Stirling emphasized the importance of focusing on winning and improving their game. “We’ve got two huge games,” he said after the defeat to Canada. “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. 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 giving it as best a crack as we can.”
Reflecting on the team’s need to play their best cricket, Stirling continued, “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.”
Addressing Past Frustrations
Stirling was asked about the frustration of not taking the next leap in world cricket, despite being known as giant killers in the past. “I wouldn’t say it’s frustrating, no,” he remarked. “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.”
Stirling acknowledged the quality of their opponents, stating, “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.”
Canada’s Confidence Boost
Jeremy Gordon, one of Canada’s standout performers with the ball, expressed personal satisfaction with their victory over Ireland. Reflecting on their previous game against the USA, Gordon said, “I think just coming back from obviously the first game where we thought we should have won that game. I feel like all three departments, we kind of ticked today, so it’s a magnificent win for us. I’m very happy obviously to contribute to the team success because I personally felt my over is what kind of gave it away the last game, so for me to come back and help the team get over the line to me, I feel like I’ve done a good job so I’m quite happy.”
Preparing for Tough Opponents
Gordon believes this win has boosted Canada’s confidence as they prepare for matches against stronger opponents like Pakistan and India. “There’s definitely a lot of confidence – so for us obviously, it’s to do the basics right and to be disciplined,” he said.
“It’s not for us to get ahead of ourselves – basically just obviously appreciate the win, but then just go back to the drawing board keep working our games because like I said, it’s going to be Pakistan and India. Those are obviously two of the better teams in the world currently so for us, it’s again ticking the box in terms of being disciplined in all three areas; batting, bowling and fielding. I feel like if we do that, we might give a good account for ourselves in a day, and who knows what could happen.”
As the T20 World Cup progresses, Ireland and Canada will be keen to showcase their best performances and strive for victories in their remaining matches.
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