Friday, March 23, 2007

Irish skipper Johnston ruled out

World Cup Group D, Jamaica: Ireland v West Indies
Match starts 1430 GMT Friday
See archive for Live Scores

Ireland team
Ireland fear no-one after beating Pakistan
Ireland will be without their skipper Trent Johnston for Friday's final group match against the West Indies.

Johnston's shoulder injury flared up again in training so John Mooney comes into the team and Kyle McCallan will be skipper at Sabina Park.

Bready bowler Boyd Rankin has been passed fit by physio Iain Knox.

Both the West Indies and Ireland are through to the next stage but, with points at stake to carry over, there should be no let up.

Wicket-keeper Niall O'Brien said there was a "bit of history" between himself and West Indies captain Brian Lara.

Back in 2004, the two men had a fall-out during a one-dayer at Stormont, with O'Brien claiming Lara failed to walk when he edged the ball to him.

O'Brien said: "Lara was funny.

"We had that disagreement at Stormont and then two days later I turned up to play against him for [former county] Kent.

"I don't think he could believe his eyes. I think he'd seen enough of me.

"I talked to [West Indies team-mate] Dwayne Bravo recently and he said 'Brian said to say hello'.

"I'm looking forward to seeing him in Jamaica."

Ireland booked their place in the Super 8s after a surprise win over Pakistan and a tie against Zimbabwe.

And Lara said he had been impressed with what he had seen so far.

"I think they've shown great fight. At one point in the Zimbabwe game things didn't look too bright for them but they pulled themselves out of that, picked up momentum against Pakistan," he told BBC Sport.

"I think they are going to represent themselves and the group very well in the next round.

"They have a fighting spirit as a people in whatever they do, whether it's cricket or football and I'm impressed with the fact they shown mettle and fight."

West Indies coach Bennett King said he wanted his side to play with a lot more vigour after Zimbabwe made them sweat in the six-wicket victory over the African side.

He said: "We will play this match against Ireland as though it is a match in the Super 8s, to try to get ourselves focused, and ready to play in the next stage of the competition.

"I don't think Ireland have played above expectations because they have got a very sound bowling attack, and their top five batsmen have certainly done the job for them in the associates' competitions.

"We have identified some strengths and weaknesses."


West Indies (from): Brian Lara (captain), Ian Bradshaw, Dwayne Bravo, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Corey Collymore, Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard, Daren Powell, Denesh Ramdin, Marlon Samuels, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Lendl Simmons, Devon Smith, Dwayne Smith, Jerome Taylor.

Ireland (from): Andre Botha, Jeremy Bray, Kenny Carroll, Peter Gillespie, Dave Langford-Smith, Kyle McCallan (captain), John Mooney, Paul Mooney, Eoin Morgan, Kevin O'Brien, Niall O'Brien, William Porterfield, Boyd Rankin, Andrew White.

Umpires: Billy Bowden (NZL) and Ian Gould (ENG); 3rd umpire Brian Jerling (RSA) Referee: Roshan Mahanama (SRI)

No comments: