T20 World Cup 2021 | Sri Lanka deserve to go through, we will be eyeing the second spot, says Andy Balbirnie

In their second Round 1 match on Wednesday, Ireland won the toss and inserted Sri Lanka in, and reduced them to 8/3 in 1.4 overs, with Paul Stirling and Joshua Little delivering early blows. Pathum Nissanka and Wanindu Hasaranga stitched a 123-run partnership to power Sri Lanka to 171/7 at the end of 20 overs.

Balbirnie said that the batting unit didn’t get any momentum, as he praised Sri Lanka for their all-round effort. He also reflected on the difficulty in batting on the quick Abu Dhabi surface, and hoped for his batters to deliver their best in their next match.

"We don't get wickets like this and we don't get pace like that too often like that at home. But the more we go up the levels - and if we go well on Friday, looking ahead to next week - it's only going to get quicker. They were quite skiddy, the bowlers. They bowled good short balls. But that's what you expect at the international level and you've got to find ways to cope.

"I love that challenge, and a lot of our batters do, to get out there and having the ball zinging past your head - that's the battle we want to be in. We're not going to be able to change that over the course of the week if we do qualify. But we've just got to back our skills and take it head on and not back away from it. That's a mental thing, rather than a technical thing. But we don't want to get too ahead of ourselves. We've got a big game on Friday."

Balbirnie looked forward to the challenge against an in-form team.

"We certainly wanted to come in and win today and potentially put Friday not in the back of our minds but you want to win all the games," Balbirnie said. "But we came up against a really good Sri Lanka team today and certainly our attention is turning fully on Friday, which becomes pretty much a straight knockout.