Ireland captain Andrew Balbirnie heaped praise on the pacer Josh Little despite his team’s massive defeat against Sri Lanka in their second game of the group stage of the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup 2021 in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday (October 20).
Little returned with a stunning spell of 4/24 in his quota of 4 overs, but poor batting let Ireland down, as barring Balbirnie (41), no other Irish batter could survive against Sri Lankan attack and eventually, suffered a 70-run defeat that dented their chances of reaching the Super 12s of ICC T20 World Cup.
Following the defeat against Sri Lanka, Balbirnie said that the 21-year-old left-arm bowler is a huge asset and he could hold the key to Ireland's chances of reaching the T20 World Cup 2021 Super 12s.
According to ICC, Balbirnie stated: “I was excited at eight for three. Josh Little bowled to his plans and he has been a real find for us this year, he has bowled beautifully for us up top and we put them in real trouble. But the way their guys came out and played was really impressive and took the innings away from us in the middle. But I thought we came back quite well.”
He added, “Josh is a huge asset. He has been a force in ODI cricket this year and really come to the fore. He showed off those new-ball skills and attacked the stumps. On these wickets, he comes into his own.”
Meanwhile, Ireland will now face Namibia in their final group stage game and last opportunity to have any chances to progress to the Super 12s and the skipper said they are excited about the crucial game
Balbirnie said, “We are excited, they are the games you want to play in when you grow up watching cricket and see the knock-out games. They are the ones we want to be part of, so we will rest up and be ready. We started the week really well and put in some really good performances against the Dutch. We knew if we lost that game, we would be playing catch up.”
He signed off by saying, “This is a good Sri Lanka team, I thought they batted and bowled really well. We started well with the ball and finished well with the ball but we could not really get it going with the bat. We have a massive game on Friday now and it is all to play for.”
(With ANI Inputs)
