Ireland skipper Porterfield says a vociferous crowd won’t affect his team

Ireland skipper Porterfield says his team will not wilt in front of vociferous crowd

Ireland skipper Porterfield says a vociferous crowd won't affect his team

Ireland skipper Porterfield says his team will not wilt in front of vociferous crowd

Ireland captain William Porterfield on Saturday said that his team would not be intimidated by the vociferous Indian fans when they take on Mahendra Singh Dhoni's side here today.

"We knew before we started the competition that we will be playing two host nations in the group stage. It is going to be a massive game," Porterfield said ahead of the game at M Chinnaswamy stadium.

"We played Bangladesh in Bangladesh and it would be similar. We played before a noisy crowd, but we were able to keep them quiet for most part of the game. We will take a lot from that experience.

Fanatic supporters
"There were some fanatical supporters and there will be a few more in (Sunday's) game. It is a special occasion playing India in India. We are looking forward to it."

Porterfield said his players had forgotten their previous match at the same venue three days ago when they successfully chased a World Cup record total to shock England.

"We have put Wednesday behind us. We are proud of our performance, we created a bit of history then. We have to start afresh again, we have got bigger challenges ahead. We have to forget about Wednesday and take the good things about the game," he said. Ireland expected Andre Botha, who missed the game against England, to be fit today. "It is unfortunate that Andre (Botha) picked up a groin niggle just ahead of the game.

We are confident that he will be fit for tomorrow's game," he said.

"Alex Cusack came in and Gary Wilson was the extra batsman in the last game. We have got so many options with the ball. Even Kevin O'Brien did not bowl an over. We have to plan our options with the ball. If we want to chase a 300 plus total as was the case in the last game, we need depth in our batting."

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