Paul Stirling believes Ireland must trust the fighting spirit in the squad to enjoy success
Ireland captain Paul Stirling insists his side must pride themselves on fighting spirit in order to bounce back after a disappointing T20 World Cup.
Heinrich Malan’s outfit exited a tournament they had high hopes for as the bottom-placed team in Group A and suffered defeat in a dead-rubber clash with Pakistan in Lauderhill to add to earlier losses in their opening two games against India and Canada.
A torrential downpour that forced the cancellation of their third clash versus the United States all but dashed any lingering hopes of advancing to the Super Eights phase, but Stirling believes the key to Ireland hitting back stronger is to trust the “fight” within the squad as well as improve on their fielding.
“It’s been a tricky tournament,” said Stirling after Ireland’s hard-fought display in defeat to Pakistan, who won with seven balls to spare.
“As a side, when we show fight like we did against Pakistan and against India, when our backs are so much against the wall and (we) come out to show that we are always trying our hardest, we can’t do any less than that. If we do less than that, we will get put away.
“I think we need to pride ourselves on that fight.
“That and our fielding are two things that we need to make sure we are 100 per cent on. We are always continually trying to improve those.”
He added: “We probably rue the fact we didn’t get more runs (against Pakistan), but I think the way we came back into the game in both innings, I was really pleased with (that).
“We could have folded really easily, but we didn’t. We showed fight to get back into the game twice, and maybe midway through that second innings, we were touch-and-go favourites.”
