The mood is very good among Ireland players, says William Porterfield

Hobart, Mar 6: Ireland captain William Porterfield has insisted there will be no lingering mental scars from their heavy defeat by South Africa when they face Zimbabwe in their next World Cup match tomorrow.

World Cup Special

The Irish head into this weekend's Pool B encounter in Hobart on the back of a 201-run-thrashing by South Africa, where Hashim Amla (159) and Faf du Plessis (109) were the main contributors to a huge Proteas total of 411 for four.

Nevertheless, that match was still only Ireland's first defeat of the pool stage followings wins over both the West Indies and the UAE. They now have four points from three games, compared to Zimbabwe's two from four heading into this weekend's match at Hobart's Bellerive Oval.

"The mood is very good," Porterfield said today. "That's the biggest thing for myself, that things haven't changed.

"You can see if moods tend to drop or not, and that hasn't been the case. After that (South Africa) game I thought we did that pretty quickly and the lads' focus was turned straight on to this game, which is great."

Ireland have now beaten at least one Test nation in three successive World Cups and their opening four-wicket win over the West Indies at this edition was no shock upset.

Porterfield said his side now expected to win matches, rather than hoped to be competitive.

"I think that's how we approach our every day mindset and you're only going to get that mindset from having prepared the right way and know that you're on top of your own game and you're feeling 100 percent confident and back everything that you've done," he explained.

Zimbabwe's Brendan Taylor said winning on Saturday was "non-negotiable" for the Africans, but Porterfield said the stakes weren't as high for Ireland.

"We're halfway through our group campaign. I don't think it's crunch time for ourselves.

"We're two from three. We're going out there tomorrow to make it three from four. "If you start looking too far ahead in games and things like that and the competition, then you're taking your eye off the ball."

AFP