(Cricket news) Ireland men’s cricket team batter Harry Tector admits that his team are still getting accustomed to the conditions in Dubai and has expressed his dissatisfaction about the performance in the warm up match against Scotland. The 21 year old was Ireland’s top scorer with 38 runs from 33 balls and believes there are enough positives to take from their performance.

In a press release by Cricket Ireland, Tector said “Batting conditions out there were actually pretty good, it was a good pitch with small boundaries straight – but being five down relatively early made it a bit harder to get going.”

“I think Curtis [Campher] and Pebs [Neil Rock] batted particularly well, but personally I felt that I struggled a bit in timing the ball, which was disappointing. That probably contributed to us not getting to a par score – we thought par was probably around 200. But that can happen – it's our first game in a while, and there were definitely a few cobwebs there and things we can improve on.”

Reflecting on the positives from the match including the bowling performance by Josh Little, Tector said “Josh is world-class, and he's proved that this summer. He's been super consistent and is a massive part of our team both on and off the pitch. It's been great to see him do so well. He and I have been friends for a very long time and I've always known how good he is – so it’s great to watch him do so well.”

“As for the team, there were a lot of good things we did today, but it was our first game out here and it’s very hot – high-30s to early-40 degrees most days. So getting used to that – running between the wickets, dealing with fatigue and tiredness – that was a challenge. Even though I knew it was going to be hot, I didn't expect it would be that difficult after you’d run a couple of twos, and equally in the field. Everyone will get more used to it though, and we’ll learn game by game. Come the 18th of October when we go out to play the Dutch, I’m sure we’ll hit the ground running.”

Ireland will now play a three match T20 series against the UAE on 7th, 8th and 10th October.

T20 WORLD CUP – THE DETAILS

FIXTURE SCHEDULE

Pre-T20 World Cup – preparation period

5 October 2021: Ireland v Scotland – warm-up match (scorecard)
7 October 2021: Ireland v UAE – 1st T20I (ICC Academy Oval 1; start 9am local time)
8 October 2021: Ireland v UAE – 2nd T20I (ICC Academy Oval 1; start 9am local time)
10 October 2021: Ireland v UAE – 3rd T20I (ICC Academy Oval 1; start 9am local time)
 
Official T20 World Cup warm-up matches

12 October 2021: Ireland v Papua New Guinea – warm-up T20I (Abu Dhabi; start 2pm local time)
14 October 2021: Ireland v Bangladesh – warm-up T20I (Abu Dhabi; start 6pm local time)

T20 World Cup – Round 1

18 October: Ireland v Netherlands (Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium, Abu Dhabi; starts 10am GMT)
20 October: Ireland v Sri Lanka (Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium, Abu Dhabi; starts 2pm GMT)
22 October: Ireland v Namibia (Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Sharjah; starts 10am GMT)

The top two teams from Round 1 go into the Group Stage.
 
THE SQUAD

A preliminary 18-player squad was recently announced – this will be reduced to 15 for the T20 World Cup tournament, however, the three other players will still travel to the UAE as reserves.

Andrew Balbirnie (c), Mark Adair, Curtis Campher, Gareth Delany, George Dockrell, Shane Getkate, Graham Kennedy, Josh Little, Andrew McBrine, Barry McCarthy, Kevin O’Brien, Neil Rock, Simi Singh, Paul Stirling, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker, Ben White, Craig Young.

Head Coach: Graham Ford

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