Paul Stirling believes Ireland can beat Pakistan and USA

Ireland captain Paul Stirling on Friday, asserted that his team can beat Pakistan and the United States of America (USA) in the upcoming ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 fixtures.

Ireland are on the verge of an early exit from the 20-team tournament after losing back-to-back matches against India and Canada.

Meanwhile, the Irish captain Stirling, while speaking at the post-match press conference after his side’s 12-run defeat against Canada, claimed that his side can win its remaining group-stage fixtures.

“We’ve got two huge games,” he said. “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 given it as best a crack as we can.

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Stirling also acknowledged that Ireland did not play to their full potential in their first two matches of the T20 World Cup, stating if they do not play their best, they are bound to lose.

“I think we just want to play as good 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,” said Stirling.

Paul Stirling then went on to laud the inexperienced Canada for playing better while commenting on his side’s shock loss.

“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,” Stirling concluded.

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