O'Brien backing Ireland to make big impression

KEVIN O'BRIEN was backing Ireland to make a major impression at the ICC World T20 when the squad left for a pre-tournament training camp in Dubai yesterday (SUN).

For O'Brien, and the two other veterans of the 2007 World Cup - his brother Niall and William Porterfield - there is a sense of déjà vu, because their opening group match in Bangladesh will be against Zimbabwe on St Patrick's Day.

Ireland famously tied with the African side in their opening game of 2007, before scoring an incredible win over Pakistan two days later on March 17.

"Paddy's Day has been kind to us in the past and I hope it's a good omen for when we play Zimbabwe in the first match - that's a massive game for both teams," O'Brien said, without ignoring the threat posed by the UAE and the Netherlands in Ireland's other Round One games.

"We have serious ambitions to go all the way in the tournament, and we plan to get off the plane in Dhaka and hit the ground running when the competition gets under way."

O'Brien believes the lessons learned on the recent tour of the Caribbean - where Ireland played three matches in Trinidad and three in Jamaica, including a T20 victory over the West Indies - will serve them well in the coming campaign.

"We take confidence from having beaten the world champions on their own patch, and I suppose that puts added pressure on us to qualify from Round One," the Railway Union all-rounder added.

"Six games of high quality cricket in the West Indies were great preparation for this trip. If we're being harsh on ourselves we probably left a few results out on the pitch there, especially at Sabina Park when we couldn't chase 97 to clinch the T20 series.