Associate nation looking to win every game following Windies' triumph
Wednesday 18 February 2015 15:24, UK
William Porterfield expects Ireland to qualify for the World Cup quarter-finals following their four-wicket victory over West Indies in Nelson.
Paul Stirling (92), Ed Joyce (84) and Niall O’Brien (79no) helped Ireland chase down West Indies’ 304-7 in 45.5 overs as the Associate nation recorded another victory over a Test-playing nation following their triumphs over Pakistan in 2007 and England four years ago.
Ireland reached the Super 8 stage of the 2007 World Cup and captain Porterfield expects his side to advance in this tournament, too, despite still having to face Pool B heavyweights South Africa, India and Pakistan, as well as Zimbabwe and next opponents United Arab Emirates.
"I believe Ireland can qualify for the knockout stages,” said Porterfield, whose team were beaten by Scotland and Australian club side Randwick Petersham in the build-up to the competition.
“I don't see this result as an upset. We prepared to come into this game to win, we're going to prepare to go into the UAE game to win, South Africa after that and so on.
"It's fantastic to win – the way we set about chasing those runs and the way the lads kept continuing scoring was great – and this sets us up nicely for the next few games.
“Belief has been growing within the squad for a long time and we know what we are capable of. We just want to keep proving ourselves to the others.”
Positive
Darren Sammy’s 67-ball 89 was one of the main reasons West Indies were able to pass 300 – Lendl Simmons’ century being the other – but the team’s former skipper believes the Caribbean outfit then “took Ireland for granted” when they tried to defend their score.
“We were just not putting in a good game of cricket,” said Sammy, whose innings included nine fours and four sixes. "We scored 300 and we were were supposed to win but we took them for granted as we fielded and we were lackadaisical.
When things are not going your way, it's always difficult to motivate yourself, but as a group, you've got to keep believing and we need to find some inspiration somewhere.
"Our bowlers have been going for some stick over the last few games and it was no different against an experienced Irish team, who had a game plan and stuck to it."
"When things are not going your way, it's always difficult to motivate yourself, but you've got to keep believing and we need to find some inspiration somewhere, and we need to find it quickly.
"I will always try to be positive in my approach and hopefully the rest of the team can follow because if we continue to play like that we won't be here long."
Windies skipper Jason Holder added: “I think we need to be a bit more precise when we set fields.
"We're leaking too many runs at the start of the innings and we are just giving away too many boundaries during the middle overs. We need to tighten up.”
Watch highlights of Ireland’s victory over West Indies throughout the day on Sky Sports’ dedicated World Cup channel.
