Cricket World Cup:Irish skipper Trent Johnston is adamant that his side are not in the Caribbean to make up the numbers and insists that a place in the Super Eight stage is not beyond his side.
Speaking ahead of Ireland's opening World Cup match against Zimbabwe the captain admits the standard of cricket will be high in all the matches but believes good fortune could have a role to play.
Ireland have their work cut out in Group D, where they face hosts the West Indies and Pakistan in addition to the Zimbabweans.
"If a bit of luck goes our way, and we execute our plans, I believe we can make it to the next round," said the New South Wales-born all-rounder. "We are entering this match against Zimbabwe with a lot of confidence. We know we have a very tough group, but we have our plans in place, and we are looking to execute them.
"West Indies are going to be difficult to beat on home soil, and they have that extra bit of an incentive to do well," he said.
"Pakistan are a world-class team with world-class performers, and Zimbabwe are capable of causing an upset, but there is no reason why we cannot cause an upset too.," said the captain ahead of this afternoon's game (2.30 pm Irish time).
However, Zimbabwe captain Prosper Utseya admits his side venture into the unknown against Ireland after struggling to gather information on their opponents.
"We have been seeking some information about them, but it is not readily available," he said. "We feel no pressure though, because we have nothing to lose. We just have to play to our best.
"We have been working very hard for the last two months before we came to the Caribbean, and we did well to win some games in a series at home against Bangladesh.
"We have taken some positives out of our warm-up games against Australia and Bermuda, so I feel we are moving in the right direction, and we just need to take that momentum into the competition.
"If the other sides in the group do not take us seriously, it will be to our advantage, and we need to capitalise on it.
"We have a number of guys that have now played more than 50 one-day internationals in our side, and they have performed against the best, so they just need to be themselves and do well."