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Birmingham Bears opener Paul Stirling smashed 119 in just 51 balls as they started their T20 Blast campaign with a 125-run thumping win against Northamptonshire Steelbacks. But the biggest highlight from the game was Stirling’s onslaught against James Sales where he smashed 34 runs in his over. Stirling hit five sixes on the first five balls and then ended the over with a boundary. This was the Irishman's third T20 hundred which included 10 sixes and nine fours as Birmingham posted 207-3 in a rain-reduced 16 overs game.
“We seemed to dovetail well,” Stirling
After the match, Paul Stirling talked about his performance and praised his teammate Sam Hain who scored 66 in 32 balls. “I don't think we could have ticked off more boxes than that,” Stirling said. “It just seemed to be my day and Sam Hain's as well. He is such a classy player and made me look like the big brute of the partnership. He really helped me at the other end when I was not going quite so well. We seemed to dovetail well”, he added.
“Hopefully it’ll get louder and louder,” Stirling
The Irishman was also playing his first match for the Bears and was elated with his performance on debut. “I suppose you never know how your first game is going to go,” Stirling said. “As a team point of view, it couldn’t have gone much better and personally it was nice to score a few runs. It was my first experience (Edgbaston) and it was really good. I’ll look forward to it as the campaign moves on and hopefully it’ll get louder and louder”, he said.