Irish Look To Make History

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Johnston - dreaming of ODI status.

By Richard Gibson, PA Sport, Barbados

Victory over Bangladesh at Kensington Oval tomorrow would provide Irish cricket with a lasting one-day legacy from the World Cup.

A second win over Test-class opposition in this tournament - following that over Pakistan in the group stages - would be enough to earn Ireland permanent one-day international status.

Theoretically that would mean more fixtures against the big nations in the coming years, although Kenya, who have not reaped greater rewards since they fulfilled the same criteria at the 2003 World Cup, would argue to the contrary.

There are currently 11 countries in the one-day rankings and Ireland's elevation - like other associate teams here they currently have temporary two-year status - would increase the prestige of their achievements in the Caribbean.

"It would mean everything," said Ireland captain Trent Johnston. "We came over here to put Irish cricket on the map, not just in the world but in Ireland as well."

Johnston's team will have to lift themselves quickly, however, having suffered a nine-wicket drubbing at the hands of Australia.

Since qualifying for the Super Eight stage by virtue of a tie with Zimbabwe and that Pakistan shock, Ireland's great strength has been to remain competitive in matches.

But they sat in their dressing room, crossing off the lowest scores in World Cup history before succumbing for 91, the ninth-smallest total at such an event.

"It's disappointing because there would have been people watching back in Ireland and we did not put up such a good show as we have in the previous games," said Johnston. "The game against Bangladesh is huge for us and it's one we've looked at and thought 'we could potentially win this'.

"We don't want to go out against Bangladesh and give another performance like we that.

"We don't want to disappoint the fans because a lot of people have travelled from Ireland to watch these two games and we let them down. We're going to go out there, and firstly play for ourselves, and secondly play for them because they've been fantastic.

"It's been the one thing that's guided us through this World Cup, especially the group stages in Jamaica. If we can do well in the next game, hopefully we can send them home happy again."

But confidence will need to be repaired after Australia raced over the line in just 12.2 overs.

"Obviously we've taken a knock and it hurts to be beaten like that," said coach Adrian Birrell. "We've already spoken about it and we've said we have to focus on the next game.

"There is some bruising there that we need to get out of our system. We've bounced back before after adversity, not in this tournament but in our recent past history, and bounced back well.

"We have to look at the bigger picture of where we've come from and the matches we've competed in and the matches we've won previously to the Super Eights.

"We have to look at those games and tell ourselves we're still a good side."

Ireland hope to have all-rounder Andre Botha (hamstring) back to bolster both the middle-order and bowling depth.

Tomorrow's match was scheduled to be one of the showpiece clashes of the tournament before Bangladesh sent India packing and Ireland provided extra reason to celebrate St Patrick's Day in Jamaica a month ago.

Bangladesh pushed England close in Bridgetown earlier this week and are in the unusual position of entering a latter-stage World Cup contest as favourites.

"We've seen Ireland's games on TV," said Bangladesh captain Habibul Bashar. "They're not a bad team at all. They have some good batsmen and their pacemen are fine."

Just like England's Michael Vaughan, Habibul is a captain under pressure, having managed just 61 runs in six innings during the tournament.

"I am frustrated by my own batting performance, it hasn't helped the team and I have two matches to do something about it," Habibul said.