Ireland awoke today to the news that the nation’s cricketers had added a chapter to their book of World Cup upsets, beating the West Indies in their opening pool game in Nelson.
Ireland’s wicket-keeper, Andrew Balbirnie, spoke to Pat Kenny this morning, live from New Zealand.
Balbirnie was adamant that while the cricket world might have been stunned by Ireland’s win, the Irish team weren’t expecting much less.
“We all came in with a positive mindset and from the first over we played the way we wanted to,” he said.
“We went into the game feeling like we could win,” he added.
Ireland trailed by 304 runs when they stepped in to bat, but strong performances at the crease from Paul Stirling (92), Ed Joyce (84) and Niall O'Brien (79 not out), secured the win with four wickets to spare.
“They got a bit of partnership and got 300 and then the top four batters just looked so comfortable and played with such freedom that it never actually looked in doubt,” Balbirnie told Pat.
There have been just five successful 300+World Cup chases – with three of them now from Ireland. But Balbirnie told Pat they weren’t too intimidated by the West Indies score, and expected to match it on a small ground that favoured big hits.
“It’s a small enough ground here in Nelson ... and we thought (the West Indies’ 300) was about a par score on the wicket ... we thought we could chase it down fairly convincingly,” he said.
There was sizeable Irish crowd in Nelson, something Balbirnie mentioned to Pat as a big boost to the players.
“It was almost like playing a home game in Dublin, it was really tremendous”
Ireland face the UAE next, on February 25 in Brisbane.
“We’ll have a couple of beers tonight and enjoy ourselves but we’re very focused,” Balbirnie said.
Listen below to the interview in full
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