Ireland v West Indies: Hosts ‘just fell short’ in series decider – Paul Stirling

Ireland managed a respectable 194-7 in their innings and Stirling, who was dismissed after 13 runs in the second over, was pleased with their effort.

“The message was to go out and give it your all and we just fell short, but there were periods of the game where we feel we were up to the standard and the West Indies score, but it kept going up towards the end,” he added.

Stirling reserved praise for Matthew Humphreys, who took the wickets of Rovman Powell and Evin Lewis in the 12th over.

“That is one of the best spells of T20 international bowling I’ve witnessed from us,” Stirling continued.

“The context too, he bowled a left hander at all stages and had short boundaries so to come out with 16 runs and two wickets is a real positive, he has really taken that new bowl in his stride and we’re really happy with how he is trucking.”

Ireland are not in action again until September, when they face England in a three-day T20 series in Malahide.

Stirling is hoping that Ireland can use the intervening three-month period to work on areas they need to improve.

“We’ve got a lot to work on, we have domestic cricket coming up in the next weeks and the gap after that will be the tricky part, we have to come into September in better preparation than we are at already.”