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saul Stirling and George Dockrell are the only two players in the current Irish squad who have so far been in a T20 World Cup before. And they didn’t have to work as hard for it.
In 2012, before this tournament was divided into a first round and a Super 10 or Super 12 stage, dozens of teams were grouped into groups of three. That was the last time Ireland danced with the big dogs like this. After a decade and three failed first rounds, they can finally feel the rhythm again and can’t wait to hit the ground running.
It’s great,” said Andy Balbirnie, the Ireland captain. “The World Cup changes, the 50th game changes, we haven’t had many chances in those World Cups lately. To be in this next stage against the best teams in the world in front of big crowds hopefully the crowd today is absolutely amazing albeit most of our parents.” And some wives and girlfriends shouting it over their heads – it’s been a very special day to be an Irish cricketer. We hope to have many more over the next couple of weeks.”
Ireland’s team of travel supporters will likely extend their time in Australia – especially Balberni’s parents who are retired, so he doesn’t know why they haven’t stayed – to immerse themselves in an experience that has long been in the making.
“It’s a special place to tour. “Cricket is very popular here,” Balbirni said. “I’m sure we will be playing in absolutely amazing stadiums and these opportunities don’t come every year. If I were in their situation, I would stay in my position for as long as I could.”
It was clear that Stirling was thinking the same thing against the West Indies. He produced his best performance in a T20 World Cup – and played in all seven of Ireland’s opponents – to solidify a clinical chase.
Prior to this match, Stirling had batted 15 times in T20 World Cups, scored 245 runs, and averaged 18.84, with one fifty-one over. These are not figures expected of the most experienced player in the squad and the scrutiny of his performance has been growing everywhere except in the Irish camp.
“I don’t think I doubted Paul. He’s an elegant player and a key member of this team,” Balberni said. “We’ve played cricket together since we were nine. We know each other and our games inside out. We are very close to the stadium. We knew how much this meant. His manner was remarkable. He went strong in the Powerplay and then bowled it for the rest of the innings and allowed Lorcan [Tucker] to play his game. It was just a really classy chase.”
After their tense finish against Scotland two days earlier, which had only been successful thanks to the heroics of Dockrell and mid-tier Curtis Campher, Ireland wanted to show they could put together something more convincing. They also wanted to prove that they had changed from the team that was knocked out in the first round last year, and that they had reversed what many spoke of as a downturn in their game. And they did, with what Balberney called a “fairly complete performance”, which began with the West Indies’ bowlers being restricted to an under-par score, followed by their batting leading the chase of a less confident team they might have bottled. “There’s a lot of emotion because we’ve spent 12 months trying to figure out how we want to play this game,” Balbirni said.
Ireland’s tactical musing began when Heinrich Malan took over as head coach in January and began to change the way they played their shortest form to be more in line with the aggressive approach taken everywhere from England to Zimbabwe. They tried it in the summer at home, losing seven straight matches against India, New Zealand and South Africa, before finally defeating Afghanistan in a series they won 3-2. While the defeats were stinging, they were part of the learning experience.
“We are very fortunate to be playing against some of the best teams in the world this summer. Playing our old-school way is not going to be successful, but trying to play an exciting brand of cricket we can compete with them,” said Balbirni. “We managed South Africa and India very closely. Playing this way brings out the best in us and we have a chance to play bigger teams in the next two weeks. We hope we can continue to support ourselves.”
And that’s something they’ve learned how to do, thanks in large part to the likes of Stirling and Duckerll. They played the starring roles the last time Ireland beat the West Indies when it mattered in a major tournament, at the 2015 ODI World Cup in the same country. This victory is their biggest moment on the world stage since then, and they will want to make it count. –Cricinfo
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