STIRLING EFFORT COMES UP SHORT

IRELAND captain Andrew Balbirnie promised that his side would improve on the back of yesterday’s narrow one-day international loss to UAE in Abu Dhabi. A Paul Stirling unbeaten century – his second in consecutive ODI innings – positioned Ireland well but a clinical run chase by UAE saw the home side achieve its firstever ODI win over a Full Member. Stirling (right) hit an unbeaten 131, with Balbirnie contributing 53 to Ireland’s final total of 269-5 but near faultless centuries from Chundangapoyil Rizwan and Muhammad Usman steered UAE to victory by six wickets — their first win over Ireland in the seven ODI clashes between the two sides. Balbirnie described Ireland’s total of 269 as ‘just above par on a slow wicket’, but added: ‘After being 141 for one we were looking at 300 and then unfortunately I got out and that sort of gave them some momentum. But we managed to take some momentum into the second innings with us too. ‘I thought we kept them under wraps pretty well but they batted very well at the back end and put our bowlers under pressure. ‘So look the bowlers are going to learn, that’s all we can ask. We’re hugely disappointed with the result naturally, we’re here to win games of cricket.’ Stirling’s form offers encouragement ahead of the next ODI against the same opponents tomorrow, the Belfast man has now passed 9,000 runs for Ireland across all formats, becoming only the second Irish batsman to reach the landmark after William Porterfield.