T20 World Cup Qualifier: Determination key to Ireland's qualification, says captain Balbirnie

Ireland captain Balbirnie said the win over Oman was their performance of the qualifying competition

Captain Andrew Balbirnie believes Ireland's determination to succeed was crucial to them qualifying for the T20 World Cup.

The Irish defeated hosts Oman by 56 runs in the qualifier semi-final to secure their place in the finals in Australia this autumn.

It was a third successive qualifier win for Ireland after they opened the tournament with defeat against the UAE.

"I think our determination got us there today," Balbirnie said.

"We knew at the start of the week that we needed to win three games. We've gradually got better every match as the tournament has gone on - and that's what you need to do in tournament cricket.

"Our T20 cricket has been really inconsistent, and to win three matches in a row we knew we'd have to be at our best. We managed to do that, and that [the win over Oman] was probably our best all-round performance."

'Questions had been asked'

Ireland, who will be making their seventh straight appearance in the T20 World Cup, will play fellow qualifiers the UAE in the final of the qualifying tournament on Thursday.

Ireland recovered from losing openers Paul Stirling and Andrew Balbirnie in the third over to post a score of 165-7, with Gareth Delany top-scoring with 47.

In reply, Oman struggled to keep their run rate up as they were all out for 109 with nine balls remaining, and Balbirnie had particular praise for the batting performances of Andy McBrine, Delany and Harry Tector.

"We lost a few early wickets, but we have spoken as a batting group about going out and backing your shots and backing your play from ball one - and they did that," he said.

"There had been question marks about the middle order, I have been taking a lot of questions about that so for those guys to do that today in the way that they did, and for Andy McBrine to take the momentum in with us was brilliant.

"Gareth Delany and Harry Tector's partnership was world class. What impressed me was that they came out firing from ball one and didn't just take their time to assess conditions."

Captain told me to play with freedom - McBrine

McBrine had played a starring role for Ireland in their dramatic 2-1 ODI series victory over the West Indies in January, and he was the man-of-the-match against on Tuesday against Oman.

After hitting 36 runs off 21 balls and claiming 2-24 in an all-round performance of quality, McBrine said the confidence given to him by his captain was a crucial factor in him playing so well.

"After the series in the West Indies I was coming in here really high on confidence," he said.

"I missed the first few days when I was out here but I caught up nice and quickly. It was a nice time to get my career best to get us to the World Cup.

"We are a very confident team and when we play our best cricket we give teams a really hard time. The skipper gave me confidence before I went out - he just said 'go out and play with freedom'.

"He said everyone in the changing room backs me and that it was just about showing that freedom - and happily it came off."