Ireland T20I tri-series was 'perfect preparation' for T20 World Cup Qualifier, says Shane Getkate

Ireland hosted Scotland and Netherlands for a tri-nation Twenty20 International series last month, and won after finishing atop the table, following a nervy one-run win over Scotland in the last match of the series. Ahead of the qualifier, Ireland will be playing a multi-nation T20I series in Oman, beginning on Saturday.

Getkate said the home series helped his team-mates "get stuck into their specific roles" and as a group, encouraged them to focus on improving their game ahead of the global T20 qualifier tournament.

"The recent T20 tri-series in Malahide was perfect preparation before a big qualifying tournament, as it allowed everyone in the squad to get stuck into their specific roles," Getkate told Cricket Ireland on Friday, 4 October.

"Winning the tournament was great, as I don’t think we’ve won a T20 series at home for a few years. While we showed great fight in all of the games, and some of the young lads really stuck their hands up, as a group we were focussed on continuing to get better game by game going into the Qualifiers."

Gareth Delany, who made his international debut in a T20I against Zimbabwe in July this year, also reflected on last month's tri-series, saying that the series was a learning experience.

"It was great to be able to win the tri-reries, and especially against some of our nearest rivals [Scotland and Netherlands]," Delany said. "We played three tough matches, which will probably reflect the types of games that will be coming up, so to be able to get that little bit more experience at this level was great.

"We played really well, but there are obviously a few things that we can improve on – so that’s also very positive, that we can still get better as a group."

Delany, 22, has so far featured in five T20Is for Ireland. He made 89 runs in the tri-series, including a maiden half-century, to go with his two wickets.

"Personally, I learnt a lot from that series," Delany said. "I need to be more clinical in executing my skills, whether that’s getting out of an over that hasn’t gone for many with the ball, or recognising what the bowler is trying to do and not to play to his plan while batting."