T20 World Cup: Andrew Balbirnie backs Ireland to impress in Super 12 stage ahead of Sri Lanka challenge | Cricket News

Andrew Balbirnie insists Ireland can compete alongside the world’s best at the T20 World Cup and believes their style of cricket can cause teams problems in the Super 12s stage.

Ireland bounced back from losing their group opener against Zimbabwe to defeat Scotland in a must-win match on Wednesday, before thrashing two-time World Champions West Indies on Friday to progress through the first round for the first time since 2009.

Balbirnie posted 37 from 23 deliveries and formed a 73-run opening partnership with Paul Stirling to set them on their way to a nine-wicket victory over the West Indies, with Ireland’s captain excited to see what his side can achieve when they begin their Super 12 campaign against Sri Lanka on Sunday.

“It has been a big thing for us not to worry too much about the results but just focus on our performance,” Balbirnie said after Friday’s win. “We were quite fortunate; in the summer we got to play against some of the best teams in the world.

“Playing our kind of old-school way wouldn’t have been successful, but trying to play an exciting kind of brand of cricket, we can compete with them. We ran South Africa and India pretty close, New Zealand in a one-day series. I know it’s a different series, but certainly playing that way I think brings out the best in us.

“We get a chance to play even better teams over the next two weeks. Hopefully, we can continue to back ourselves. Even when our backs are against the wall like the other day, we came out fighting and played a certain way, and we won a game, and that’s the way we want this team to play, win or lose.”

Ireland will be underdogs to reach the semi-finals from the six-team group, which also features Afghanistan, tournament hosts Australia, England, New Zealand, although Balbirnie always backed his side to qualify for the Super 12s having missed out a year ago.

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“We knew that we had the squad to definitely get through to the next stage,” Balbirnie said. “Last year there was that disappointment, but I’m not sure if we were playing the kind of cricket that warranted getting through to the next stage, whereas now I think we’re in a lot better place as a team.”

Balbirnie added: “Once you put yourselves in that situation [the Super 12s] anything can happen. We are delighted. We just want to pit ourselves against the best in the world and who knows where that can take us?”

Sri Lanka recovered from losing against Namibia to defeat the UAE and the Netherlands to qualify from Group A, with Chamika Karunaratne confident the 2014 T20 World Champions will provide Ireland with a tougher challenge than the West Indies did.

“In a World Cup anything can happen because it’s pressure, stress, a lot of things out there,” Karunaratne said. “Every team is getting better and better, and they’re fighting and playing good cricket and analysing every player.

“I’m not surprised that Ireland came because Ireland was last year playing good cricket and they are getting better and better. As a team and even bowling, batting, fielding – all three of the formats – they’re doing really well, so I’m not surprised.

“They [Ireland] batted really well, and they look strong and hit big shots, very good. The thing is it’s really hard to play every day like that. It’s different conditions, different teams, different tactics.

“So we have a plan and we know what we have to do and what they did wrong and what they did right. For everything, we have plans for them really well. We see they batted really well and congrats for them, but I don’t think that’s going to happen tomorrow because we think we are a better team and better players.”

You can watch the T20 World Cup live in full on Sky Sports. Coverage of Ireland vs Sri Lanka is live on Sunday from 4.30am on Sky Sports Cricket, ahead of the match getting underway at 5am.