Simmons' men just want to keep beating the best

CRICKET:WITH SO much of the talk since the World Cup centring on Ireland's possible exclusion from the next staging of the event, it's hard not to see the players carrying an extra burden in to the RSA Series of One-Day Internationals against Pakistan, the first of which takes place at Stormont in Belfast today (10.45).

Ireland have batted well off the field since the International Cricket Council (ICC) made their initial decision to go with just the 10 full-member countries for the 2015 World Cup, with Cricket Ireland having played a key role in the diplomacy stakes which encouraged the ICC to look again at the issue during their annual congress in Hong Kong at the end of next month.

For Ireland coach Phil Simmons, though, the performances in the two games against the World Cup semi-finalists today and on Monday should not have a bearing on that issue.

“I don’t see these matches as a case of proving the ICC wrong, I think the cricket world knows that it is the wrong decision,” said Simmons after Ireland completed their preparations in Belfast yesterday.

“I don’t want to put that pressure on my team that we have to prove something to the ICC. Everybody knows what is happening.

“We will go out there and prove things to ourselves that we can beat these top teams. The more we beat them the closer we will get to what we want to achieve, which is getting higher in the world rankings.

“Hopefully we can just keep getting better, and if that means we can win these two games and show that we are able to beat these teams then that will help us.”

Simmons and Ireland also received backing from Pakistan coach Waqar Younis, who hopes his side won’t be caught cold after swapping the sweltering conditions of the Caribbean for the decidedly cooler climes of Belfast.

“Just looking at the World Cup, they played like champions, they played top cricket,” said the former fast bowler, before outlining the need for some sort of qualification for 2015.

“Maybe you can say that they played too many younger sides in this last World Cup, but there should be a qualifying round where you pick the top two or three teams to play.”

Today’s game marks the first ODI meeting between the sides since Ireland’s stunning, three-wicket victory at Sabina Park in Kingston during the 2007 World Cup, and Younis has backed his players to make the rapid acclimatisation after they competed their tour of the West Indies by levelling the two-match Test series in St Kitts last Tuesday.

“Coming from the West Indies, from 35, 40 degrees and a lot of humidity, it’s pretty hard to adjust. But we’re professional enough to adapt to the conditions very quickly and hopefully we’re going to try and deliver the goods in the upcoming two games,” he added.

Pakistan’s success in the Caribbean, where they also won the ODI series, had a lot to do with their spinners, with Saeed Ajmal, Mohammad Hafeez and Abdur Rehman taking a remarkable 32 wickets in the two Test matches.

Ireland skipper William Porterfield believes his players will be well able to deal with the challenge on the back of their experiences in the World Cup.

“We’ve just got back from seven or eight weeks in the sub-continent, playing against them in their conditions. Obviously we didn’t play against Pakistan, but we played against India and some of the best out there, so it’s not going to worry us too much,” said Porterfield.

Ireland will be missing their own World Cup spin star in 18-year-old George Dockrell, who is still recovering from the shoulder injury he picked up in the final game of the tournament. YMCA off-spinner Albert van der Merwe is likely to take his place, with Paul Stirling and Andrew White the other slow-bowling options.

Ireland have also been hit by the loss of Niall O’Brien, man of the match from the win in 2007 and a player averaging 80 in county cricket this season. Gary Wilson will take over behind the stumps.

SQUADS – Ireland: W Porterfield (Warwickshire, capt), A Cusack (Clontarf), T Johnston (Railway Union), N Jones (Civil Service North), E Joyce (Sussex), N McDonnell (Strabane), J Mooney (North County), K O’Brien (Gloucestershire), A Poynter (Clontarf), B Rankin (Warwickshire), P Stirling (Middlesex), A Van der Merwe (YMCA), A White (Instonians), G Wilson (Surrey, wkts).

Pakistan: Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), T Ahmed, S Ajmal, U Akmal, A Ali, H Azam, U Gul, M Hafeez, J Khan, Y Khan, A Rehman, W Riaz, M Salman (wkts), A Shafiq, T Umar.