Ireland ready to go ahead of ICC World Twenty20

Ireland have done their homework on unfamiliar opponents Oman and know they must be at their best to start the ICC World Twenty20 with a much-needed win.

Captain William Porterfield reports his team still high on confidence, despite their warm-up defeat against Zimbabwe on Saturday.

As Ireland return to the same venue in Dharamsala for the first match of their qualifying campaign on Wednesday, however, Porterfield knows Oman will provide a stern test.

A possible Group A decider is already looming against favourites Bangladesh on Friday, but before then Ireland must get past Oman and then avoid a hiccup too against Netherlands in their final qualifying match.

Porterfield was impressed by what he saw from Oman at the Asia Cup, and their warm-up win over Scotland.

He said: “We’ve seen quite a lot of footage on them, how they go about their cricket ... we’re going to have to be right on top of it tomorrow, and put them under pressure.

“They scored quite a few runs in the Asia Cup — I think the only blip they had was against the UAE — and they beat Scotland in their only warm-up.”

He insists Ireland are in good shape too, though.

“Everyone is fit and raring to go ... and the lads have a good confidence base,” he added.

“Everyone has done well at various times throughout the tour.

“We’ve done a lot of good things, and we’ll take them into tomorrow and enjoy it.”

Porterfield believes Ireland got the worst of conditions in the six-wicket defeat against Zimbabwe.

“The last two games, our batting has been pretty good,” he said.

“We probably got an above-par score on that pitch that was really tacky against Zimbabwe — and to knock off 120 in 12 overs against Hong Kong was really good.

“It’s a matter of going out there, enjoying it and sticking to what we’ve done very well.”