Duo delighted with T20 success

The Irish skipper believes the efforts he and his team-mates made to secure not only their World Cup place in Sri Lanka in September, but to win ten games in a row to lift the World Twenty20 Qualifiers was an outstanding achievement.

“It’s really pleasing to win a trophy. Ten games unbeaten is a fantastic effort from the lads. It’s a long way to go now to the ICC World Twenty20,” admitted the Killyclooney man.

“We’re obviously looking forward to it, playing against Australia and the West Indies is going to be a tough task. We’ve got to keep working hard and improving our skills.

“In the last few games, we came out pretty hard against everyone. Afghanistan got a good start, but we regularly took wickets. We made it easy for ourselves in the end.”

For Rankin, the pace bowler is already looking forward to facing the likes of Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard, David Hussey and Travis Birt in the summer.

“Obviously reaching the World Cup was the main priority and it’s going to be great playing the likes of the West Indies and Australia,” said the Bready man.

“It’s great that we have not just qualified for the World Cup, but we also won the qualifying competition, which is what all we wanted to do right from the start.

“It a tough competition to win 10 games in a row and two in the same day just proves that the entire squads fitness was super.

“I know that Paul Stirling deservedly took all the headlines after his super batting display in the final against Afghanistan, but everyone in the squad played their part from TJ (Trent Johnston), Max Sorensen, George Dockrell to Kevin O’Brien, Ed Joyce and William (Porterfield).

“But we believe there is more to come from this squad, so yes we’ll celebrate our win in Dubai, but in truth the hard work starts all over again as we prepare for Sri Lanka and try to make sure that we are ready from the start to do well against both the West Indies and Australia.”

Meanwhile Cricket Ireland announced that their T20 playing shirt is now available for purchase from their recently appointed official kit supplier, O’Neills International Sports Company.

The shirt can be purchased from the newly launched O’Neills website www.oneills.com and is priced between £35-45.