HOBART: Ireland captain William Porterfield has insisted there will be no lingering mental scars from their heavy defeat by South Africa when they face Zimbabwe in their next World Cup match on Saturday.
The Irish head into this weekend’s Pool B encounter in Hobart on the back of a 201-run-thrashing by South Africa, where Hashim Amla (159) and Faf du Plessis (109) were the main contributors to a huge Proteas total of 411-4.
Nevertheless, that match was still only Ireland’s first defeat of the pool stage followings wins over both the West Indies and the UAE.
They now have four points from three games, compared to Zimbabwe’s two from four heading into this weekend’s match at Hobart’s Bellerive Oval.
“The mood is very good,” said Porterfield on Friday. “That’s the biggest thing for me, that things haven’t changed.
“You can see if moods tend to drop or not, and that hasn’t been the case. After the South Africa game, the lads’ focus was turned straight on to this game, which is great.”
Ireland have now beaten at least one Test nation in three successive World Cups and their opening four-wicket win over the West Indies at this edition was no shock upset.
Porterfield said his side now expected to win matches, rather than hope to just be competitive. “I think that’s how we approach our everyday mindset and you’re only going to get that mindset from having prepared the right way and know that you’re on top of your own game,” he explained.
The skipper added that the stakes weren’t as high for Ireland as they were for Zimbabwe. “We’re halfway through our group campaign. I don’t think its crunch time for us. We’re going out there tomorrow to make it three from four.”
Winning ‘non-negotiable’ for Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe’s Brendan Taylor has said winning against Ireland is “non-negotiable” for his side if they are to qualify for the World Cup quarter-finals.
“We want to turn up tomorrow and win. We want to win convincingly and we feel we’re good enough to do that,” said Taylor.
Zimbabwe’s most recent defeat, a 20-run reverse against Pakistan, was especially disappointing as they did a lot of the hard work in restricting their opponents to 235-7 only to be bowled out for 215 themselves.
But wicketkeeper-batsman Taylor, who made exactly 50 against Pakistan, said Zimbabwe’s mood remained positive. “It’s surprisingly upbeat. We know we need to win this game. There are no grey areas there. But they [Ireland] are a good side. We’re very much aware of that.”
He did admit that the loss to Pakistan had been a demoralising as they had failed to get over the line at 230. “We need to carry on, kick on, and get that hundred instead of just 30s and 40s. So that is the focus.”
Published in The Express Tribune, March 7th, 2015.
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