T20 World Cup: Andrew Balbirnie hopes Ireland beating England will 'trigger interest at home'
- Published
Highlights: Andrew Balbirnie leads Ireland to famous victory over England
"This win tonight will hopefully trigger a bit of interest back home. I hope so. If it doesn't, I'll give up."
Ireland captain Andrew Balbirnie laughed after uttering those words in his post-match news conference following his player-of-the-match display in Wednesday's shock win T20 World Cup win over England in Melbourne.
Balbirnie, of course, has no intention of giving up on his mission of attempting to get the Irish public - north and south - to fall in love with the game of cricket.
But it was a joke with a little jag.
Ireland's men's team have been landing blows on the world cricket stage for 15 years but still face a constant battle to find solid ground on the Emerald Isle's sporting landscape.
"Growing up, cricket wasn't a big sport in our country. There was a lot of trekking up and down to Belfast for nets," recalled the 31-year-old Dubliner some 30 minutes after he celebrated victory with family, friends and seemingly every Irish supporter in the small band that had made their way to Melbourne Cricket Ground.
"We want to see loads of kids playing the game. It's a great game. It's given me a lot of pleasure and hopefully nights like tonight can ignite a future generation of Irish cricketers."
Balbirnie says beating England "was an absolutely surreal feeling"
'I've never been happier to see rain'
Given that Ireland were involved, it was somehow fitting that rain had to play a part with Balbirnie's men eventually winning narrowly by five runs on the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method when the match was halted after the heavens opened.
But even England skipper Jos Buttler had to acknowledge that the 12th-ranked Irish had "outplayed" a side many have touted as the competition's favourites.
If Ireland had held on to their catches, they may not have needed any help from the elements but Balbirnie acknowledged his relief that the forecast rain did arrive just as Moeen Ali was threatening to wrest the initiative away from the underdogs.
"The way Moeen was playing, I was probably worried he would get another ball in," said Balbirnie.
"I've seen a lot of rain in my time playing cricket and I've never been happier to see that rain come down like it did.
"It was an absolutely surreal feeling. When I came off the pitch I was initially told it was 14 minutes until we started losing overs. I wasn't sure that was right. It all happened too quickly to take in what we had just achieved.
"But from where we sit, we felt like we deserved to win that game."
Ronnie Delany won the 1956 Olympic 1500m final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground venue
Superb as it was, it still, in all likelihood, won't register as the greatest Irish sporting achievement at the MCG.
That remains Ronnie Delany's sensational 1500m Olympic gold medal at the Melbourne Games 66 years ago.
Fittingly, there was a Delany central to this latest piece of Irish sporting history as spinner Gareth bowled what proved to be the final three balls of the match.
"We did the museum tour here last night and Ronnie Delany won a gold medal here in the Melbourne Olympics and you see his name etched in the history of Irish sport forever," added the Ireland skipper.
"Cricket isn't a big game in Ireland. We're the flag bearers. We want to make it as big as possible but it's certainly an absolute pleasure to play here - to lead the first Irish team to ever play here and we'll get to play here [again against Afghanistan] on Friday."
While Balbirnie says Ireland's rapid progress in the Twenty20 game since Heinrich Malan's arrival last January after their previous struggles in the format has made them believe "we can compete against anyone", he said there was apprehension going into Wednesday's game.
"I was looking at the match-ups this morning and part of me was struggling to understand if they show up how we could compete with them," he said.
Ireland captain Balbirnie hits brilliant 62
In the event, Balbirnie's superb 62 off 47 balls helped Ireland reach a strong position of 103-1 after 11.5 overs before a collapse saw them dismissed for 157 in the final over.
"We were disappointed with how we batted at the end. We felt 175, 180 was a good score. We were under par but we know with the way this England team play that we'd get chances if we bowled pretty well."
That they did as Josh Little's second-ball dismissal of skipper Buttler immediately put England under pressure which only showed signs of being eased when Moeen arrived at the crease.
Celebration of the day came from Fionn Hand, playing his first game of the tournament as he, in Balbirnie's words, produced a "beauty" to dismiss Ben Stokes.
"You just love his enthusiasm. I thought he was actually going to end up in the stand, he ran off so much. They are just amazing moments to be part of," added the Ireland skipper.
'We must back this up against Afghanistan'
After the rain-induced finish, the joyous Ireland players made a beeline for their family members.
"Your mum and dad go through the mill when you play cricket," added Balbirnie.
"They probably get more stressed out than I do so it's great. They'll absolutely get a thrill from tonight and hopefully we can continue that."
To that end, the Ireland skipper says the team "must back up" this in Friday's contest with regular opponents Afghanistan - something they couldn't do on Sunday against Sri Lanka in the wake of their dominant first-stage win over West Indies 48 hours earlier.
"The group is wide open. It's a huge game on Friday now for us," said Balbirnie.
"If we can go up to Brisbane [for Monday's game against Australia] after a win on Friday, who knows what will happen."
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