Cricket ICC Trophy
In many ways, the job for Ireland has already been done. Qualification for the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies was the primary aim of the ICC Trophy as far as coach Adrian Birrell was concerned and that has been achieved by getting through to the semi-finals.
But Birrell is an ambitious and fiercely competitive man. The instant after qualification for the Caribbean was assured, his focus would have shifted to winning the tournament.
It is not going to be easy though. The only batter to have performed consistently so far in this competition for Ireland is Ed Joyce and as the event moves south, he is unavailable for today's match against Canada at Castle Avenue (10.45 start).
Although he could be free to return for next Wednesday's final should Ireland win today, skipper Jason Molins knows that he will have to count him out for now. He must also hope that the rest of the team can shoulder some of the responsibility in his absence. The top order, in particular, has been disappointing so far with the first three wickets falling far too cheaply.
"It is now time for our top order to start firing," said Molins, who as an opening batsman includes himself in that. "Ed is obviously our best player and we will miss him in the semi-final but it is time for some of the others to step up," he said.
"Even though qualification for the West Indies was our number one priority, we have always had our eyes on the trophy," he said.
It is likely that after his man of the match-winning performance against Denmark on Thursday in Bangor Dom Joyce will retain his place with Eoin Morgan returning from a recurring back strain that kept him out of that match.
Canada will be relying, as ever, on the performance of their star batsman John Davison, who so impressed for them during the last World Cup. He has been in the runs here already, scoring 125 against Namibia in Woodvale, 74 against Oman in Muckamore and 62 against PNG at Downpatrick. Crucially, however, he failed against the two top sides in Canada's group, Scotland and the Netherlands.
Canada's other hard-hitting batsman Ian Bilcliff is also a danger as far as Ireland are concerned. If they let those two stay at the crease for long, they could be chasing leather all day.
However, despite the failures at the top of Ireland's scorecard, confidence is high in the camp that today they can make it through to an ICC Trophy final for the first time.
In the other semi-final today, Scotland take on surprise packages Bermuda in Milverton.
IRELAND (probable): Jason Molins, Jeremy Bray, Andre Botha, Eoin Morgan, Peter Gillespie, Dom Joyce, Trent Johnston, Andy White, Kyle McCallan, Paul Mooney, Adrian McCoubrey.
CANADA (probable): John Davison, Umar Bhatti, Desmond Chumney, Sunil Dhaniram, Ian Bilcliff, Zuban Surkari, Don Maxwell, Pubudu Dassanayake, George Codrington, Sanjayan Thuraisingam, Kevin Sandher.
FIXTURES - SATURDAY - ICC TROPHY (semi-finals, 10.45am) Ireland v Canada, Castle Avenue; Scotland v Bermuda, Milverton ICC Trophy (play-offs, 10.45am) UAE v Namibia, Malahide; Denmark v Netherlands, Inch; Uganda v Oman, Rathmines; USA v PNG, Anglesea Road.
SUNDAY - WMK League (1pm) Phoenix v Clontarf, Railway Union v Pembroke.
