Thaindian News

Guyana, May 3 (IANS) Ireland coach and Phil Simmons wants his side to put behind their opening match defeat to host West Indies and play their hearts out against England, whom they take on in a must-win match, at the Providence Stadium here Tuesday.
Ireland, who surprised everyone by reaching the super-eight stage last year, succumbed to a 70-run loss after restricting the West Indies to 138 Saturday and their faint hope is to beat England and sail through to the second stage from the three-way tie and for that to happen England have to beat West Indies.

Former West Indies all-rounder Simmons played 26 Tests and 143 one-day internationals between in a 12-year span, wants his native Caribbean side to do Ireland a favour.

Having beaten Ireland, if West Indies win Monday, Ireland and England will be pitted in a winner-take-all fight-out in Georgetown Tuesday for a spot in the Super Eights along with the hosts.

“It would make things easier, a straight fight between us and England,” Simmons, said of a West Indies victory.

“If England win then we have to beat England and score a certain number of runs to get the run rate up but the point is, if (West Indies) win we get a straight shoot-out on Tuesday, which is a better thing for cricket, for me and for the team,” Simmons said knowing fully well he is talking of a complicated path for his side.

Despite being disappointed by Ireland’s poor performance in the opening match and having been bowled out for 68, Simmons said his team is still capable of defeating England.

“In Twenty20 everybody’s beatable and as long as we play to the best of our ability and the big teams are even one per cent under par we have a chance of beating them,” he said.

“That was the disappointing thing against West Indies. We put ourselves in a position, we played well up until the 16th over and then it went astray.”