Canada hoping for morale-boost with win over Ireland

Canada cricket coach Andy Pick hopes victory over a tough Ireland side will send his team into the World Cup in confident mood.

The North Americans face the Irish in St Augustine, Trinidad, today in their final warm-up match before their tournament opener against Kenya in St Lucia next week.

With Ireland having lost to the top-ranked South Africa by just 35 runs in their first warm-up, Pick is expecting a difficult game.

Pick said: “It will be nice to face Kenya in our first game with a win behind our backs.

“We recognise how well Ireland played against South Africa but we are going out there to continue our good work, which started months ago.

“Ireland’s performance against South Africa did not surprise us as we know of their ability.

“Ireland and many of the associate teams have been playing good cricket for quite some time and we expect that our clash will be very competitive.”

Both Ireland and Canada were unaffected yesterday by a gas leak at their hotel in Port of Spain.

The Hilton hotel needed to be evacuated, with members of the South Africa and Pakistan teams having to get out, but Ireland and Canada had already left for training.

Ireland are hoping to follow up their performance against South Africa with another good showing.

They play Zimbabwe in their first match of the tournament in Jamaica on March 15.

“This game is very important,” coach Adrian Birrell said ahead of today’s match at the Sir Frank Worrell Memorial Ground.

“We want to get into a winning mood. We competed favourably for 90 overs against South Africa and we would like to keep that momentum going.”

At one stage on Monday South Africa were reduced to 91 for eight by the Irish before rallying to 192.

In reply Ireland cruised to 135 for four but crashed to 157 all out.

It was a display Birrell feels is certain to stand the team in good stead.

“If nothing else, I think that it showed us that we can compete against the world’s best,” said Birrell, who stands down at the end of the tournament.