Irish draw inspiration from Bangladesh against Kiwis

Stephan Fleming may be one of the shrewdest captains of the game but after watching Bangladesh's stunning win over South Africa, he will make sure that Ireland do not fashion a similar act against them.

''The Irish are a very good team and throughout the tournament even their defeats are also very graceful. They have been playing wonderful cricket and we can not allow them any room to manouever,'' Flemming told reporters after the morning work out.

Ireland, on the other hand, are drawing inspiration from the superlative performance by Bangladesh yesterday at the same ground.

Coach Adrian Birrell was in the Providence stadium for most part of the second session to see the sensational win.

The Black Caps and Australia are the two teams who so far remain unbeaten in the World Cup.

But Fleming does not want any competition. ''Frankly speaking we do not want them to give us a tight match. They are good but we are better. The minnows have always added advantage in a tight match because you carry the extra pressure,'' he said.

Ireland, still smarting from successive defeats, will like to turn it around for one last time. But a hamstring injury sustained during training has put all-rounder Andre Botha's availability in doubt for the game.

''The next 24 hours are crucial,'' Iain Knox, team physio, said as Ireland await details of the extent of Botha's injury.

''We do hope that he will be back an we are keeping our fingers crossed,'' said Birrell.

Meanwhile, Ireland received a good luck message from the Duke of York, who met team officials during a visit to Guyana.

''I've been following the competition on the television, and like everyone else I'm delighted that you have reached the Super Eight phase and hopefully you'll pull off another memorable victory,'' the Duke said.

New Zealand have been tipped by many, including Ian Chappell and Sir Viv Richards, to make it to the final of the tournament.

Captain Fleming looked at the side's success so far as a ''very satisfying'' experience and was confident they would go all the way.

''One of our strengths is that we bat low down and we're strong in the last ten overs and I think that will become prevalent in the last few games of the tournament,'' said Fleming.

''The thing about our game so far is that we haven't relied on one person. Some teams rely on one or two players and you know that if you put them under pressure then the rest of the side is under pressure.

The strength for New Zealand is that we have guys from one to 11 who can, on his day, win a game,'' he added.

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