Ireland bat; Irfan, Younis out injured

Almost eight years ago to the day, on St Patrick's Day 2007 in Jamaica, Ireland stunned the cricket world by defeating Pakistan in the Caribbean World Cup. Now, in Adelaide, they need a repeat performance to progress to the quarter-finals with West Indies on track to beat UAE.

"Big game doesn't do it justice but we're relaxed and we're going to enjoy the day whatever it brings," Ed Joyce tweeted this morning. They will bat first after William Porterfield won the toss - it is certainly their strongest discipline. They are unchanged from the side that lost to India which means no place for offspinner Andy McBrine.

They have beaten West Indies, UAE and Zimbabwe but they have been countered by heavy defeats against South Africa and India. Pakistan, meanwhile, have overcome two defeats in their opening two matches with three wins on the bounce - most notably an impressive display against South Africa in Auckland.

Their pace attack has been key to the revival but they suffered a serious blow shortly before the game when Mohammad Irfan, the left-armer, was ruled out. Younis Khan had also picked up an injury and the pair were replaced by Ehsan Adil and Haris Sohail. Adil has not played a match so far at the World Cup.

 

Ireland 1 William Porterfield (capt), 2 Paul Stirling, 3 Ed Joyce, 4 Niall O'Brien, 5 Andy Balbirnie, 6 Gary Wilson (wk), 7 Kevin O'Brien, 8 Stuart Thompson, 9 John Mooney, 10 George Dockrell, 11 Alex Cusack.

Pakistan 1 Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), 2 Ahmed Shehzad 3 Haris Sohail, 4 Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), 5 Sohaib Maqsood, 6 Umar Akmal, 7 Shahid Afridi, 8 Wahab Riaz, 9 Sohail Khan, 10 Rahat Ali, 11 Ehsan Adil.