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With Ireland’s match against South Africa due to get underway early Tuesday morning, www.cricketireland.ie spoke with John Mooney, William Porterfield and Phil Simmons about the clash.
With Ireland’s match against South Africa due to get underway early Tuesday morning, www.cricketireland.ie spoke with John Mooney, William Porterfield and Phil Simmons about the clash.

Tuesday’s match, which starts at 3.30am GMT will see Ireland face one of the pre-tournament favourites South Africa, who showed the world just what they are capable of by scoring 408 against the West Indies last week, with the in-form AB de Villiers scoring 162 in just 66 balls.

When asked about the prospect of facing a player in such great form, John Mooney was keen to point out that he wasn’t the only top class player in South Africa’s side.

“All the talk is about AB after what he did last week, which was incredible, but they’ve got a lot of good players, so it’s about just trying to execute our plans and not get too worried about who they’ve got.”

Phil Simmons also pointed out that de Villiers will not be receiving any special treatment ahead of the match, with the team working on playing against the whole team rather than one individual.

“We just work out how we want to bowl to him, same as we work out how we bowl to the other seven or eight batters and that’s the way we’ve been taking it.

“We did the same thing with Chris Gayle, who is a menace too, so we just take it like that and work out how we want to bowl to them, if we bowl well and they score a hundred, then that’s just the game.”

Skipper William Porterfield also spoke about the need to address all of South Africa’s players, but also the importance of focusing attention inwards as oppose to on the opposition.

“Obviously they’ve got a few World Class players throughout their line-up and they are all lads that can win games, but we’ve got to worry about what we can do and what we’re in control of. If someone comes out and plays the way that AB did the other day then you have to say well played.

“We’re confident with what we have and how we can go about things, and all the bowlers know what they have to offer and what they can do, so as long as they are happy with what they have done and the plans they have got and they execute them to the best they can and someone takes the game away from there then you’ve got to say well played, but as long as we’re executing what we want to do and played the best we can then we’ll be happy.”

Whilst the squad are full of confidence heading into the game with two wins from two, they are not taking any shortcuts heading into the match.

“We’ve played well in the last couple of games and confidence is high within the squad so we’ve just got to start again, and start our processes again, which we have done over the last couple of days and start from scratch for tomorrow” said Porterfield ahead of the squad’s final training session.

After playing in Nelson and Brisbane, there has been a lot of talk about the slightly slower pitch and large outfield at the Manuka Oval in Canberra, where tomorrow’s game will be played. Whilst the squad have played here before, Porterfield is cautious about the conditions being a little different his time around.

“We played here in October and I think it was, not slightly better, but not as slow as what it potentially is now, obviously it’s had a long Australian summer here.

“Once it fairs up a bit it generally seems to slow down as the game goes on, so we’ll have to see how that plays tomorrow.”

The size of the outfield is something that Mooney thinks will benefit the Ireland team heading into the game.

“It’s a nice big ground, if they’re going to hit sixes they are going to have to hit them really well and that’s going to suit us, and hopefully the wicket won’t be as quick as in some other places as well, which is going to be good. Hopefully that will take the sting out of the shots that they play and a bit out of their pace attack too.”

One man in South Africa’s ranks who will be very familiar with Ireland is assistant coach Adrian Birrell, who was in charge of Ireland for their first world cup appearance in 2007. Captian Porterfield was handed his Ireland debut by Birrell, and is looking forward to catching up with the former coach ahead of the game.

“I’m forever grateful to Adi for giving me that opportunity and coaching us right the way up through from the Under 19 World Cups he went to with us as well, so I have a lot of respect and a lot of time for Adi. He was a great coach for Ireland and a great mentor for myself and it’ll be great to see him again and catch up.”

Ireland’s match with South Africa gets underway at 3.30am GMT and you can follow all of the action live on www.cricketireland.ie and on twitter using the hashtag #BackingGreen.

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