“Our batting just wasn’t good enough” says Ireland captain Wilson

Ireland T20 captain Gary Wilson admitted that his side batting wasn’t good enough, following their big 143 run win in the second match of the 2-games series against India in Malahide yesterday. 

India won the series 2-0, having claimed the first game by 76 runs on Wednesday, and  head to Old Trafford for their first T20 against England on Tuesday in confident mood. 

Wilson found it difficult to come up with the answers for the defeat saying, “It is very difficult to sum up the whole thing. I thought we were going quite well, despite that they started very well with the bat again. But we seemed to drag it back in the middle period and then let them get away a touch in the end, which was disappointing.”

After 18 overs India were on 174/4 and Ireland were hoping to keep the score under 200, but that was before Hardik Pandya decided to take things into his own hands. He scored a whopping 32 off just 9 balls, toying with bowlers Peter Chase and Kevin O’Brien. 

Wilson said, “At one point they were looking at 185-190, which we would have taken. Pitch was a little on the greener side, so we decided to bowl again, but we didn’t lose the game because of that decision.”

Speaking about Ireland’s batting, where only four batters reached double-figures and Wilson himself top-scoring with just 15 he said, “Again (our) batting was very disappointing and we rolled over for much less than what we would have liked there. I think T20 cricket can do that to you. At 4-5 down, it was quite evident that we weren’t going to win the match.”

“We could have knocked it around and got a bit more respectability but it really isn’t going to teach us much. We have to keep going for our shots so we had to go ahead and do that. Yet, to be bowled out for 70 was disappointing.”

Ireland lost both opening batsman Paul Stirling and James Shannon before the fourth over, with Stirling particularly disappointing, nicking only his second ball to first slip. 

“When you lose the openers early, it is very tough but in T20 cricket, the openers aren’t always going to score or get us off to fliers. We have to learn to combat it. It is not ideal to be 2-3 down in the powerplays but the rest of the batsmen have to work to deal with that situation. We cannot hide behind losing early wickets because the batting altogether wasn’t good enough,” lamented Wilson.

Ireland struggled with India’s spin bowlers in the two games, particularly with wrist spin, and Wilson was asked about trying to deal with that. He said, “All around the world batsmen struggle against wrist spin because you cannot tell which way the ball will turn. It is so effective and everyone is dying to have wrist spinners in their team, especially in T20 cricket.”

“Finger spinners can only turn the ball one way. And it’s not just us who has struggled and a lot of other teams when put in the same situation against these wrist spinners would struggle in the same fashion.”

“For us, it is a difficult thing to put right with just one day between the two matches.”

After two humiliating defeats, the Irish skipper tried his best to look at the positives from the two games, “The guys will still learn from this experience. Remember, we were playing against the 15 best Indian players in the IPL. They are obviously very good and in the Indian team for a reason.”

“We have to recognize that our skills weren’t sharp enough but the younger guys in this squad will take a huge amount out of these two games. They can see what international cricket is all about,” he said.

Ireland now have a break from International games, with a series against Afghanistan coming up in August next on the horizon.