England v Ireland: Irish play best cricket when our backs are against the wall - Balbirnie

Ireland captain Andrew Balbirnie admits his side "play our best cricket when our backs are against the wall" as they suffered a 10-wicket defeat against England at Lord's.

After a tough opening two days, Ireland produced a spirited display to extend the one-off Test past tea on Saturday.

And Balbirnie said he was proud of the resilience Ireland showed.

"We showed character on Saturday and we have shown it throughout our Test career," he said.

"We have also shown we have that bounce-back ability, but unfortunately for us, when our backs are against the wall, we seem to play our best cricket.

"It is up to us to try find a way not to get so behind the eight ball that you need to really scrap it out."

Spirited Saturday showing

At 97-3 overnight, Ireland still needed 255 runs to make England bat again, but Harry Tector recorded 51, his fourth half-century in four Test matches, and Lorcan Tucker claimed 44 to give the Irish renewed hope.

A record partnership of 163-runs from Mark Adair and Andy McBrine helped Ireland reach tea time, despite England pace bowler Josh Tongue completing a five-wicket haul on his Test debut.

Last man Graham Hume pushed Ireland into the lead, but they were finally dismissed for 362 when Hume was bowled by Stuart Broad, leaving McBrine stranded and England needing 11 to win.

Zak Crawley scored all of them in four balls to seal victory for the hosts at a sun-drenched Lord's.

Balbirnie praised the aforementioned batting quartet for their efforts on Saturday, and insisted Ireland must take the positives from the game despite ultimately being outclassed.

"It was a small win to get them [England] batting again, and after a three days like that, you have to take those small wins," admitted the 32-year old.

"Andy, Mark, Harry and Lorcan showed that if you apply yourself you can score those runs.

"Mark played brilliantly. He has threatened to do that for a few years now, he's a serious batter when he puts his mind to it.

"It was a shame we lost the wickets we did on Friday as it put us behind on the eight ball.

"It wasn't to be on Saturday and that is how it is. Hopefully next time we play Test cricket we can put a few more better performances in."

'We need to get better quickly'

Ireland have lost seven successive Test matches since their Test match debut

Reflecting on the series as a whole, Balbirnie hopes the experience of playing against such a high-calibre opposition in a Test match environment will only benefit his side.

England have now won 11 of their 13 Test matches, while in contrast Ireland are still waiting for their first victory in the format after seven successive defeats.

"It is tough learning curve to come to Lord's for a one-off Test against a team on top of their game," admitted Balbirnie.

"It is not an easy place to be as an individual, but also as a team, although we did enjoy most of it.

"We need more Test experience so when we get into situations like this we can react better and have slightly better skills to compete."

Balbirnie conceded that the only way they can continue to improve is if there is a "first-class structure in place" for them to be able to compete at the highest level.

"Naturally we have to play first-class cricket and really good wickets, flat wickets that test our bowlers as much as possible.

"I know we played four test matches bunched together quite recently, but we need to play more red-ball cricket as we need to get better, and we need to get better quickly."