Ireland target warm-up victory
Wednesday, 7 March 2007Ireland coach Adrian Birrell hopes his side will go into the World Cup on the back of a morale-boosting warm-up win over Canada.
The Irish take on their fellow minnows in Trinidad on Thursday in their final game before their tournament opener against Zimbabwe on 15 March in Jamaica.
The team have already been buoyed by a strong showing against top-ranked South Africa in their first warm-up game - which they only lost by 35 runs - and Birrell now has his sights on a win.
'This game is very important,' Birrell said ahead of the match at the Sir Frank Worrell Memorial Ground in St Augustine.
'We want to get into a winning mood. We competed favourably for 90 overs against South Africa and we would like to keep that momentum going.'
At one stage on Monday South Africa were reduced to 91 for eight by the Irish before rallying to 192.
In reply Ireland cruised to 135 for four but crashed to 157 all out.
It was a performance Birrell feels is certain to stand the team in good stead.
'If nothing else, I think that it showed us that we can compete against the world's best,' said Birrell, who stands down at the end of the tournament.
Both Ireland and Canada were unaffected this morning by a gas leak at their hotel in Port of Spain.
Canada are also hoping to lift spirits ahead of their opening match against Kenya in St Lucia after losing their first warm-up by 77 runs to Pakistan.
Coach Andy Pick is expecting Ireland to provide tough opposition and sees the game as highly important to their preparations.
Pick said: 'It will be nice to face Kenya in our first game with a win behind our backs.
'We recognise how well Ireland played against South Africa but we are going out there to continue our good work which started months ago.
'Ireland's performance against South Africa did not surprise us as we know of their ability.
'Ireland and many of the associate teams have been playing good cricket for quite some time and we expect that our clash will be very competitive.'
