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William Porterfield spoke about the importance of the upcoming Pakistan match during Ireland’s pre-match press conference in Adelaide overnight.
William Porterfield spoke about the importance of the upcoming Pakistan match during Ireland’s pre-match press conference in Adelaide overnight.

Talking about his teams approach to the game and the biggest challenges that lie ahead for the team.

“It’s just another game of the group in terms of preparation. We spoke about it before the group started, taking each game as an individual game, and I think we’ve managed to do that throughout the competition.

“I think coming down the back end of the group stage, obviously the games come a bit thicker and faster, so you have slightly less time to prepare. But I think all the work in terms of cricket-wise has been done up until now. It’s just a case of getting mentally prepared. Yeah, obviously result-wise it’s a case of winner takes all, but that doesn’t really come into your preparation or anything like that. You’re still going to prepare to win each game, which we have done. So in terms of that, things stay the same.

“I don’t think you can think about the outcome in terms of you’re putting pressure on yourself, obviously. Some lads may think about it more than others, and that may be an extra motivation factor for themselves. But for myself, it’s just preparing to win that game and analysing the opposition as we do. As long as we prepare how we have done for each individual game, then we’ll be fine.”

Porterfield was also reminded of the famous win over Pakistan in the 2007 World Cup and asked if this match was similar and if Ireland had the same element of surprise going into the game.

“I think 2007 is completely different. I think obviously that was our first taste of a World Cup. It was our second game in the competition. Not many countries that were there would have known much about us. I think over the last eight years we’ve obviously grown massively as a country and as a cricket-playing nation. So I think that there is no real surprise as such.

“Everyone knows everything about every member of our squad and vice versa. So I don’t think there are going to be any surprises or anything out of the box come tomorrow of what we can do or can’t do. Yeah, I don’t think it will be as big a surprise if we do go out there and win tomorrow as it would have been back in 2007.”

Talking about the challenges facing the Ireland batters heading into the match, Porterfield was confident that Ireland are ready for what Pakistan have.

“We’ve played against some very good pace attack so far in the competition, and this actually prepared us a lot for this game. So you’ve got a few slightly different attributes. We’ve got a seven-foot players, so that’s something different you have to contend with.

“But in terms of facing their attack, I think we’re pretty well acclimatised by now as they go out there and post a total or chase down a total, whoever comes up against us.”

You can listen to William’s press conference in full below.

Ireland will take on Pakistan at the Adelaide Oval early on Sunday morning (GMT), with the winner guaranteed a place in the quarter finals of the World Cup. You can follow all of the action live here on www.cricketireland.ie and join the conversation on twitter using the hashtag #BackingGreen.

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