Ireland played 33 matches in 2022, with 27 of them in T20 format, including seven at the ongoing World Cup in Australia.

Who were the stand out performers during the campaign and the year? We take a look if the numbers back up the perceptions of the successes in 2022.

There's no doubt the Irish benefitted from consistency of selection, with the skipper having talked about 'clarity of role'. Five players played in all 27 T20I's - The top three of Andrew Balbirnie, Paul Stirling, and Lorcan Tucker, with all-rounders Gareth Delany, Mark Adair completing the full house.

Two others - George Dockrell and Josh Little misses just the one match, featuring in 26, while Harry Tector featured in 23, contributing further to the settled feel.

In total Heinrich Malan used 17 players, with Andy McBrine and Shane Getkate the two to miss out on the World Cup squad, and the uncapped Stephen Doheny making up the 15 that performed so admirably in Australia.

The World Cup stats tell us what was obvious from watching the games - Josh Little and Lorcan Tucker were the undoubted stars.

There would be concerns over the variety and depth of the attack, which performed okay on albeit helpful pitches at times.

Little with 39 wickets was well clear of the chasing pack, while Andy Balbirnie led the way with the batting aggregates, ahead of Stirling and Tucker.

There was no doubt an improvement, but I guess that was expected after the nadir of 2021, and playing 27 T20I's in ten months.

Contrast that amount with Scotland, who managed just two in the year!

It will be interesting to see what 2023 brings, when the Irish return to Test cricket after a self-imposed four-year exile, and the little matter too of a T20 WCQ in Scotland from July 20-29, plus a potential 50-over qualifier too.

Plenty done...more to do.....

T20 WORLD CUP RUNS

# Name Mat Inns NO Runs HS Ave BF SR 100 50 0 4s 6s Runs
1 LJ Tucker 7 7 2 206 71* 41.20 163 126.38 - 1 - 18 5 206
2 PR Stirling 7 7 1 170 66* 28.33 127 133.86 - 1 1 16 4 170
3 A Balbirnie 7 7 - 153 62 21.86 123 124.39 - 1 - 10 9 153
4 C Campher 7 6 1 125 72* 25.00 77 162.34 - 1 1 13 2 125
5 GH Dockrell 7 6 1 100 39* 20.00 82 121.95 - - 2 10 1 100
6 GJ Delany 7 5 1 69 24 17.25 56 123.21 - - - 7 1 69
7 HT Tector 7 6 - 68 45 11.33 75 90.67 - - 1 4 1 68
8 BJ McCarthy 7 5 3 36 22* 18.00 33 109.09 - - - 1 2 36
9 MR Adair 7 5 - 28 11 5.60 31 90.32 - - 1 1 1 28
10 J Little 7 4 2 16 8* 8.00 21 76.19 - - 1 1 1 16
11 F Hand 3 3 - 12 6 4.00 11 109.09 - - - 2 - 12
12 Simi Singh 4 2 1 7 7* 7.00 9 77.78 - - 1 1 - 7

  T20 WORLD CUP WICKETS

# Name Mat Overs Mdns Runs Wkts BBI Ave Econ SR
1 J Little 7 27 - 189 11 3-22 17.18 7.00 14.73
2 GJ Delany 7 23.3 - 185 6 3-16 30.83 7.87 23.50
3 BJ McCarthy 7 25 - 227 5 3-29 45.40 9.08 30.00
4 MR Adair 7 24 - 212 4 2-39 53.00 8.83 36.00
5 Simi Singh 4 9 - 78 3 2-31 26.00 8.67 18.00
6 C Campher 7 8 - 74 2 2-9 37.00 9.25 24.00
7 F Hand 3 5 - 54 1 1-17 54.00 10.80 30.00
8 GH Dockrell 7 8 - 56 1 1-5 56.00 7.00 48.00

2022 TOP T20I RUNS

# Name Mat Inns NO Runs HS Ave BF SR 100 50 0 4s 6s Runs
1 A Balbirnie 27 27 1 617 75* 23.73 477 129.35 - 4 2 56 31 617
2 PR Stirling 27 27 1 575 66* 22.12 451 127.49 - 2 2 58 26 575
3 LJ Tucker 27 26 3 570 78 24.78 450 126.67 - 3 2 51 15 570
4 GH Dockrell 26 23 8 432 58* 28.80 309 139.81 - 1 3 38 17 432
5 HT Tector 23 22 4 412 64* 22.89 333 123.72 - 2 1 40 10 412
6 GJ Delany 27 23 4 282 51* 14.84 233 121.03 - 1 3 20 10 282
7 C Campher 19 15 2 281 72* 21.62 217 129.49 - 1 2 25 6 281
8 MR Adair 27 18 4 190 37* 13.57 153 124.18 - - 2 15 9 190
9 BJ McCarthy 18 12 5 111 32 15.86 88 126.14 - - - 6 6 111
10 AR McBrine 12 6 1 74 36 14.80 49 151.02 - - - 5 3 74
11 SC Getkate 5 4 - 71 30 17.75 55 129.09 - - - 2 5 71
12 F Hand 5 5 - 48 36 9.60 30 160.00 - - 1 6 2 48
13 J Little 26 12 9 33 8* 11.00 39 84.62 - - 2 3 1 33
14 Simi Singh 14 8 3 23 9* 4.60 27 85.19 - - 2 1 - 23
15 CA Young 11 3 - 3 2 1.00 7 42.86 - - 1 - - 3
16 GI Hume 1 1 - 1 1 1.00 1 100.00 - - - - - 1

2022 TOP T20I WICKETS

# Name Mat Overs Mdns Runs Wkts BBI Ave Econ SR 5WI 10WM wds nbs Wkts
1 J Little 26 97.2 1 738 39 4-35 18.92 7.58 14.97 - - 24 - 39
2 MR Adair 27 91.2 - 792 25 3-16 31.68 8.67 21.92 - - 51 1 25
3 CA Young 11 41 - 311 21 4-28 14.81 7.59 11.71 - - 4 2 21
4 GJ Delany 27 58.3 - 473 16 3-16 29.56 8.09 21.94 - - 12 - 16
5 Simi Singh 14 42.3 - 332 14 3-9 23.71 7.81 18.21 - - 6 - 14
6 BJ McCarthy 18 61.4 1 547 12 3-29 45.58 8.87 30.83 - - 22 3 12
7 AR McBrine 12 35 - 248 10 2-13 24.80 7.09 21.00 - - 3 - 10
8 C Campher 19 35 - 279 7 2-9 39.86 7.97 30.00 - - 7 - 7
9 GH Dockrell 26 20 - 138 5 2-7 27.60 6.90 24.00 - - 4 - 5
10 F Hand 5 9 - 94 3 1-11 31.33 10.44 18.00 - - 6 - 3
11 GI Hume 1 4 - 41 - 0-41 - 10.25 - - - 2 - 0
12 C Olphert 2 5 - 65 - 0-18 - 13.00 - - - 4 1 0