Perth: William Porterfield, captain of Ireland, has hailed UAE’s progress as a team and even appreciated the cricket system in the country.
Ireland had regularly played against the UAE in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah venues and hence he believes that their match on Wednesday in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 could be a tough one.
“The UAE have gelled well as a team. They’ve got a good system, working well for themselves, and so I expect a very tough game tomorrow,” said Porterfield.
Ireland has an unbeaten record of 13 games against UAE and Porterfield is proud of it. “It’s obviously a decent record, but it doesn’t account for anything. It’s anyone’s game tomorrow. Obviously, if we go in there and play the kind of cricket we want to play then I’ll be happy, and the result can go from there,” he said.
Unlike UAE players, some of the Ireland players have played at the historic Gabba ground. “A few lads were here in October, and we had a training camp out here. It just inspires you when you walk into a stadium such as this. It’s a fantastic venue. You’ve got everything here and if it doesn’t inspire you to play and go out there and enjoy it, then I think there’s something wrong.”
Porterfield revealed that despite carrying the psychological advantage of having beaten West Indies, his team has done a thorough study on the UAE players. “We can’t expect to pick up where we left off against the West Indies. I think it would be foolish to do that. So we’ve got to prepare well as we have done again, and have a look at the UAE, we’ve done analysis on them. It’s just that we’re starting fresh again tomorrow and going out there and trying to get the two points.”
Porterfield also hailed UAE’s performance against Zimbabwe. “The way the UAE played against Zimbabwe as well posting 285 odd runs was great. Things could have gone quite differently if it wasn’t for [Craig] Irvine and [Sean] Williams at the end.
“The way the four associate teams have performed so far in this competition has been great. We’ve got to keep that going, not only ourselves, but everyone else. It’s great to see so many people that have gotten behind that. It is a global event, and it’s a sport we want to grow and you’re only going to grow that if you have more teams participating around the world,” said Porterfield.
