Harry Tector can become one of the greats of Irish cricket: Balbirnie

DUBLIN: Ireland skipper Andrew Balbirnie believes that his fellow teammate Harry Tector possesses all the qualities and attributes to become one of the 'greatest' Irish cricketers. In the second game of the three-match ODI series between Ireland and Bangladesh on Friday, Tector played a sublime knock of 140 (113) which powered Ireland to a score of 319/6.

Even though his match-winning knock was neutralised by Bangladesh's Najmul Hossain Shanto's counter-attacking knock of 117(93), Tector managed to showcase his potential as a batter at the young age of 23. "His performances in the last 12 to 18 months have been so good for us, and particularly in 50-over cricket," Balbirnie said.

"I think that was as good a knock as I've seen in Irish colours for a 50-over game. He's just got all the attributes to go on and be one of the greats of Irish cricket and I hope that we can help him on his way, and he continues to put in scores for us. The more runs he gets for us, the better place we're going to be," Balbirnie said as quoted by ESPNcricinfo. Ireland had full control over Bangladesh as their bowlers dictated the pace of the flow of runs during the first 20 overs of the second innings. But Shanto disrupted Ireland's momentum by picking up boundaries at regular intervals.

The result of this game doesn't impact their position to qualify for the World Cup 2023. They will try to look for positives as they prepare to travel to Zimbabwe to play World Cup 2023 Qualifiers. "Bangladesh entertained the crowd who braced the elements, as it was very cold out there, but I think if we were still able to qualify and we had a result like that, it would really hurt us," Balbirnie added.

"I thought we played pretty good cricket, which is a good sign going into the qualifiers [in Zimbabwe] later on in the summer. It's just a shame we couldn't really get over the line," Balbirnie signed off.