Ireland's Paul Stirling on disappointing defeat to Canada at T20 World Cup

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Ireland's Paul Stirling reacts to their disappointing defeat to Canada at ICC T20 Cricket World Cup. Canada posted 137 for 7 with Ireland only reaching 125 for 7 in reply to lose by 12 runs Nassau County International Cricket Stadium, New York, USA

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00:00 Hi Paul, after what happened on Wednesday in the same pitch, I think you know, what

00:17 Canada came at you there at the end with their bowling plans, how did you feel you guys adapted

00:21 trying to score those boundaries when they did go into the pitch and you had the challenge

00:25 of going to the bigger square side?

00:27 Yeah, look, starting at the back end now, I think they generally bowled very well, listening

00:35 to Jeremy there.

00:38 They hit their lengths a lot better than us, I think they actually did go full a couple

00:42 of times in the last four overs and paid the price a little bit like we did and then as

00:46 soon as they went back to that hard length, that basically got them through and won them

00:51 the game in the end.

00:53 I think that kind of, the boundaries in the middle overs, it's not the first time we've

00:57 been at T20 World Cups and that's been a theme I think 2021, that was a problem.

01:01 Does this feel different, maybe just given the conditions and given where you are as

01:04 a side now, a lot more settled?

01:06 It was just a tough pitch to score boundaries on, simple as that, certainly not looking

01:10 back any further than this tournament.

01:14 Coming into today I thought possibly winning the Towson Bowl and we could have maybe restricted

01:18 them to a lot less than 140 in the end, maybe like a 120 was what we had in our head.

01:23 I think 140 was a pretty good score out there, you saw even if you beat the infield and played

01:27 good cricket shots it didn't go for four, so all that combined I think 140 in theory

01:32 was a lot more in practice.

01:34 Paul, I mean obviously we've seen the pitches here and that's one thing, but the boundary

01:42 sizes, I mean what's your view on that?

01:44 Because even in the first game I remember you hitting a four, a cover drive and it didn't

01:47 go to the boundary.

01:48 What do you make of that?

01:50 Yeah, it's just what it is, we adapt to different conditions every place we play and we knew

01:55 that coming here, it was very much a sand-based outfield and the ball doesn't run away for

02:00 four and you know that going in, so there's no excuse for anything, we tried to hit them

02:06 for four and it didn't go.

02:08 Were you impressed with the way the Canadians in the middle there, they kept trying to hit

02:11 boundaries in the middle there and that curtain played quite a good innings didn't it?

02:14 I think they played really well in the middle, that was probably a match-winning partnership

02:17 between those two.

02:20 I think they put enough pressure back on us at certain points but also played smart enough

02:24 cricket then to score singles off the rest of the ball, so it was just good batting.

02:29 Tom from BBC.

02:30 Hi Paul, how do you think this leaves you now for the rest of the tournament obviously

02:34 with the games you have left?

02:36 Yeah, we've got two huge games, you know still massive every time you put on this shirt you

02:41 want to go and win but no reason why we can't go and beat USA and Pakistan, we need to play

02:46 a hell of a lot better if we want to do that but different conditions we know them slightly

02:51 better and we'll certainly be giving it as best a crack as we can.

02:55 Net run rate obviously would potentially come into it for you guys now, is that something

02:59 that will be in the back of your mind when you play those games?

03:02 To be honest I don't think so no, I think we just want to play as good a cricket as

03:05 we possibly can, you know I've sort of hammered for at least the last year that if we don't

03:09 play our best cricket we will not win games of cricket so we need to get back to our best

03:13 for next week.

03:14 Adam Cullens.

03:15 G'day Paul, you've been on the other side of this when you're an associate nation like

03:20 Canada beating a full member a number of times at World Cups, is it a bit frustrating now

03:24 being at the top table being a full member and not consistently being able to win games

03:29 like this one?

03:30 I wouldn't say it's frustrating no, I think knowing from where we've come from it actually

03:36 doesn't surprise you, it's not a huge thing, it might be in different levels of the media

03:41 but we certainly know not to take anyone lightly from where we've come from and that's just

03:47 what happened today, they played better cricket than us for three hours and they won the game,

03:51 simple as that, it doesn't really for me matter what their tagline is, associate or full member

03:56 or what, they just played smarter cricket, better cricket all day than us and they won.

04:02 Last question anybody?

04:03 No, thank you very much everybody.

04:05 That's it.

04:06 Thank you.

04:07 [END OF TRANSCRIPT]

04:07 Thank you

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