Ireland v South Africa: Adair ‘reaping dividends’ for hard work – Stirling

“It will be interesting to see how that professionalism in Ireland allows him to get better, how that will hold over the next couple of years and see how high his ceiling is, there’s no shortage of where he might be able to finish in the game of cricket.”

It will be a landmark occasion for Stirling on Wednesday with the 34-year-old set to make his 400th international appearance.

“I’m hugely honoured – I’m not a massive one for looking back, I’ll have plenty of time for that once my career is finished but I’m delighted I’ve been able to make it this far.

“Four hundred is a great achievement, I’ll probably take it in for about 10 minutes and then it’ll be business as usual.”

Andrew Balbirnie was left out of the T20s but he returns for the one-day games with Stirling saying the former skipper is “really excited for the challenge ahead”.

Ireland will be bouyed by Sunday’s win as the prepare to take on South Africa with the second ODI on Friday before the final game three days later.

“It’s a huge result for us and we can take a lot of confidence from it. Confidence is huge in cricket, you definitely take performances from previous games into the next.

“South Africa still have a lot in the tank, the players that have come in for this ODI series are very good too so we’ll have to be at the top of our game to have a chance at the end of it.”