Ireland hoping to upset odds

Ireland's women cricketers meet England in their fourth World Cup group match in Pune, India, today and will hope to find the joint top seeds (with New Zealand) and reigning world champions in slightly less formidable form than they have been in to date.

England's performances in their opening three matches merely served to underline their determination to retain the trophy they won on home ground four years ago. A seven-run victory over the highly rated South Africans was followed by a world record score of 376 for two against Pakistan, a total that included an unbeaten 142 by Barbara Daniels and 138 by Jan Brittin.

Sunday's nine-wicket victory over Denmark left the English on top of the group, three points ahead of Australia and nine ahead of Ireland, who are currently in third place. England will expect to make it four wins out of four against the Irish, setting up a `group decider' on Thursday against Australia, whose 10-year domination of women's cricket was ended in the last World Cup.

"We still feel we can beat England, even if they have been in fantastic form - they are not that far ahead of us on our day," insisted Irish captain Miriam Grealey, who will hope to maintain her form with the bat. She scored a half century in Sunday's defeat by South Africa.

Bowler Davina Pratt, who hopes to return to action after missing the South Africa game with a stomach bug, was equally upbeat about Ireland's prospects today. "We know we can play better than we did on Sunday. If we go out and play to our potential against England, we could really surprise them - if nothing else I hope we can give them a hard time. We'll be thinking of Ray Houghton and `who put the ball in the England net'."

Today's Fixtures - Group A: Ireland v England, Pune; Australia v Denmark, Mumbai; South Africa v Pakistan, Baroda.