Curtis Campher hoping Ireland 'can show what we're made of' after disappointing start to Twenty20 World Cup

Curtis Campher in training ahead of Ireland's Twenty20 World Cup clash against USA. PIC: Sam Navarro via Cricket Ireland

Ireland started the campaign with defeat to pre-tournament favourites India, but were mightily disappointing two days later when losing by 12 runs to associate nation Canada, who are positioned 12 places lower than Paul Stirling’s side in the ICC T20I world rankings.

They had to deal with tricky pitch conditions at New York’s Eisenhower Park, the venue for Ireland’s two opening defeats, with the ICC saying last week they “recognise that the pitches used so far at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium have not played as consistently as we would have all wanted”.

Ireland’s hopes of qualifying for the Super Eight stage are all but over, even if they were to win their final two matches, due to an inferior net run-rate, and they now face an American team that shocked Pakistan earlier this month and started the tournament with a win over Canada.

The USA, who have former Armagh overseas professional Shadley van Schalkwyk in their side, sit second in Group A behind India and Campher is determined to help turn Ireland’s fortunes around.

"I think obviously past experiences always do help you, but at the end of the day, past experiences don't play the game in front of you,” he said. “So, it's nice to draw on those previous experiences, but the next few matches are all about us executing our plans on the day.

“Teams that have done really well at this tournament have a lot of skilled, quality players. So, we need to be disciplined – to take each game at a time, and each moment at a time.

"We can’t look too far ahead, we need to win the first game before we can begin to think about the second game (against Pakistan).

“When you lose your first two games, it doesn't matter what the results are in the rest of the group. You have to win the next two games - and convincingly - to have a chance to get through to the Super 8s.

"We're used to fighting uphill battles, so hopefully we can show what we're made of in the next two games, because we haven’t done that in the first two games.”

Gareth Delany top-scored (26*) in Ireland’s eight-wicket defeat to India, but also has a crucial role to play with the ball being one of Stirling’s main spin options – Ben White played in the opening match before being left out for the Canada loss.

“We’ve seen how things have been more favourable towards the bowling sides so far in this tournament - especially in New York,” he said. “Although there hasn’t been too many overs of spin bowled generally.

“The biggest takeaway for me is to be keeping it as simple as possible and letting the surface offer some assistance. It will be interesting to see how the surfaces in Fort Lauderdale play and if spin will have more of an impact than it did in New York.”