The Paul Stirling-led side managed to secure just one point from their four matches in the tournament
Despite putting up a good fight against Pakistan in their final game of the T20 World Cup 2024, Ireland ended the campaign without a win. They set Pakistan a target of 107 and made a match of it, having reduced them to 62/6 after 11 overs. However, Babar Azam batted through and ensured Pakistan head home with a win under their belt.
For Ireland, it has been a disappointing campaign, which also included a loss to Canada. While expressing his disappointment, head coach Heinrich Malan hoped that his side would show a bit more consistency over a period of time.
“We saw it today, it was pretty challenging. We’re not the only team who’s had challenges with weather and training and stuff like that. We can easily sit here and say it’s all down to that, but at the end of the day, those are the conditions and the situations leading into the game,” Malan said at the post-match press conference.
“We’ve hopped on about being more adaptable, being more versatile. And when those things are outside of your control like they have been, we’ve got to try and find ways to compete. Like I think we did show today, we showed today that we can compete, but we’ve spoken a bit about consistency over a period of time. And we thought we were getting there, obviously, a couple of weeks ago before this tournament started. A couple of areas we can still refine and hopefully we can get that consistency that we’re after.”
Reflecting on the campaign, Malan said, “I think we had a fantastic build-up where we’ve had a fantastic nine months. We played some really good cricket, and we showed what we’re capable of, but obviously, to come here and not necessarily play exactly the way we wanted to, it was obviously disappointing.”
Ireland finished at the bottom of Group A with just one point from their four games.
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