Irish captain Andrew Balbirnie praised debutant Curtis Campher’s performance after his team lost to six wickets in the first of three ODIs against England in Southampton.
The 21-year-old contributed undefeated 59 when Ireland rose from 44.4 overs to 172 after falling 28: 5 behind.
England responded with 174-4 from 27.5 overs to ensure a comfortable win.
“Curtis played a really stubborn inning, just what we needed then,” said Balbirnie.
“There can be a lot of pressure on your first appearance at 28: 5, but he had a great application and showed what it takes to score on this wicket. I’m happy for him,” he added.
“He came seventh and also took a wicket. It’s a position we’ve been tinkering with since the beginning of the year.
“He came into Ireland without a game because of the Covid 19 pandemic and impressed the squad and earned his place.”
Morgan on Willey and Billings
David Willey marked his recall in England with a five-wicket train, while Peter Billings played the lead with the bat and scored 67 points.
“It is absolutely fantastic to get the juices flowing again in international cricket. David Willey always puts his heart and soul into it and his skills were second to none today,” said English captain Eoin Morgan.
“It was fantastic that Sam Billings came in. We’re a little spoiled, but producing it when the opportunity came and when we needed it – hats off to him.
“It’s not always easy to win the throw and bowling first on such a floor, but David had an excellent day.
“Given the story of where he was last year, it is a fantastic story and a comeback. He has always shown a lot of passion, but his skills were exceptional today.
“He and Saqib Mahmood were excellent, we tied Ireland back. If we have a low score, it is always nice to partner up. We are happy that we can play. to start the series with a win. “
“The more we can see boys in pressure, the more we learn about them. Hopefully in the next two games we will be under more pressure because we want these guys to do our best.” fifteen.”
McCarthy injury “a heavy blow”
Ireland seemed to have an outside chance of causing a surprise when England responded 78-4, but a bowling attack that Barry McCarthy lost in the first round due to an injury was unable to take further gates.
“I thought we bowled a lot after losing Barry, who led the attack – that was a big blow, but we fought back and the guys bowed a disciplined line and length.
“If you sniff a team of this quality, you really have to turn the screw, and we couldn’t do it today.
“It’s a quick turnaround for Saturday’s second game, so Barry will likely fight for it, but hopefully he can play a role on Tuesday.”
Few changes despite striking
Balbirnie complained of his team’s performance, but does not plan to make many changes for the next encounter between the teams in the same location.
“We didn’t adapt to the bat early on. England hit us pretty well, but we should be good enough to adapt to the conditions and see what it takes to get a good sum on such a wicket achieve.”
“We have not achieved the performance we would have liked, but it is only fair to give the players the opportunity to redeem themselves.”
“It would probably not be fair to hack and switch after a game, so we should stick to a sufficiently similar squad.
“I know we lost quite a bit against the world champions, but it was good to have the opportunity to play even though there weren’t a lot of people in the ground to watch.”
