‘Making England bat again was a small win’: Balbirnie proud of Ireland’s showing

Four years ago at Lord’s, Ireland were a couple of good sessions away from scoring one of the biggest upsets in Test history. Then led by William Porterfield, The Men in Green gave an outstanding account of themselves and went toe-to-toe with England for three innings before crumbling in the fourth. 

Unlike the 2019 fixture, England dominated proceedings this time around, and were on the front-foot from the very first hour of the contest. Ben Stokes’ side barely broke a sweat and, eventually, sealed a comfortable 10-wicket victory.

The one-off Test did not go the way Ireland would have wanted it to, but skipper Andrew Balbirnie is still a proud man. 

"Character not in doubt, we've got a tough group. Test cricket is very raw to us, yesterday was a tough day but to come back and make England bat again was a small win,” Balbirnie said at the post-match presentation.

The encounter was painfully one-sided at times, particularly when England were piling on the runs without being really challenged. Balbirnie admitted that his side have a long way to go in the longest format, but asserted that, at the end of the day, Ireland are ‘learning on the job’ in Test cricket. He also highlighted the importance of ‘small wins’, such as the visitors piling on more than 350 runs in the third innings to make England bat again.

“We want to grow the game in our country so small wins like that are important. We go in believing we can compete, but England quickly showed the standard and it was hard to keep up. We're learning on the job and we've got to learn quickly. Hopefully next time we'll show the benefit.”

The only way Ireland can feel like home playing Tests, Balbirnie believes, is by playing teams around their level.  

“We've got to play teams around our own level to bed into the format, hard to come here before the Ashes but these are the fixtures we've been given.”

Prior to the Test, the Ireland skipper attested that the red-ball encounter is a mere bonus for his side, and their main focus is to play well in the World Cup qualifiers, starting June 18 in Zimbabwe, and seal qualification for the mega event. 

The 32-year-old labeled the qualifiers a ‘huge event’ for his side.

“Huge event for us, a lot of focus on that for us. Dust ourselves off, get on a plane and hopefully produce good cricket."

Ireland will kick-start their qualifying campaign against Oman on June 19th at the Bulawayo Athletic Club in Bulawayo.