Perth, Australia: Ireland’s Gary Wilson, whose match-winning innings of 80 against the UAE at the Gabba in Brisbane on Wednesday won him the man of the match award, admitted their rivals have progressed as a team tremendously.
“UAE have come on pretty strong the last couple years. They’ve obviously got great facilities over there as well and I think they’ve probably moved as quickly as anyone outside the top 10 teams in the world,” he said.
Wilson also admitted the match, which Ireland won by two wickets with four balls to spare, was closer than his team made up of professional cricketers expected.
“It was obviously closer than we wanted it to be, definitely. But we’ve been in this position before at a World Cup — big tournament, big stage — and chased down totals before. I think that really stood us in good stead. We knew that if a couple of us were there until close to the end then we had a pretty good shot at winning.”
Wilson also lauded Shaiman Anwar’s century for the UAE, saying: “Shaiman played really well. We’ve played against him a lot in the past as well and he’s a good player, today he obviously played pretty well.”
Wilson said Ireland will now take on South Africa with confidence.
“We are two [wins] from two, so that’s all we can ask at this stage of the competition. Obviously today was a little bit closer than we would have liked but, like I say, we’ve got four points and that’s all we can ask for right now.”
The Irish batsman said that his partnership with Kevin O’Brien, built over years of familiarity, helped them. “I have batted a lot with Kev over the last 10 years, maybe even longer, probably the last 15 years. Obviously last year at Surrey and then with Ireland. So, yeah, I think we dealt with it really nicely. Obviously, I just poked it for one and he hits it out of the grounds. It was great.
“I think the team that played the better cricket won in the end, albeit a little closer than we would have liked.”
