Thaindian News

Bangalore, Mar.2 (ANI): While Ireland skipper William Porterfield believes his team will hit a purple patch against England in their World Cup encounter here today, fast bowler Tim Bresnan who snared five wickets against India last Sunday, believes stopping England’s World Cup juggernaut would be very difficult.

Bresnan took 5-48 in Sunday’s thrilling tie but saw team-mate James Anderson get walloped for 91 runs by the likes of Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh.

Fellow quickie Ajmal Shahzad - whose last-over six helped seal the dramatic tie - played only after Stuart Broad went down with a bout of Delhi belly.

Broad trained yesterday but coach Andy Flower and skipper Andrew Strauss will not make a decision before seeing how he reacts overnight.

The Sun quoted Bresnan, 26, as saying that England’s run-fest against India has now given Strauss’ men the belief they can compete with the World Cup’s big boys.

“To perform like that against the hosts is massive for us. We’ve taken a lot out of that game. But we’re still looking to get out there and improve on the last game we played. We improved in the field and in the bowling, although not everyone fired. It’s quite exciting for us that we can still see a lot of improvement in ourselves from the India game,” he added.

Porterfield insisted that anything is possible.

He said: “For any Irish team, playing against an English team is always pretty special for us and especially to people back home. They always want to see us get one over the English, so I’m sure they’ll be plenty watching hoping for a positive result.”

Likely Line-ups: England: Strauss (capt), Pietersen, Trott, Bell, Collingwood, Bopara, Prior, Bresnan, Broad, Swann, Anderson.
Ireland: Porterfield (capt), Stirling, Joyce, N O’Brien, White, K O’Brien, Botha, Mooney, Johnston, Dockrell, Rankin. (ANI)