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ICC CRICKET WORLD CUPMarch 7, 2015Ed JoyceWilliam PorterfieldHOBART, TASMANIA Q. William, you never made it easy for them. Inspired choice picking Alex Cusack obviously, great in the final over. WILLIAM PORTERFIELD: Yeah, in those final overs, asked to defend 330 and ran, what, 4 for 30, well, just under 10, fantastic effort. Yeah, he's done well. He never really seems to let us down, and today was no different. Q. Kevin O'Brien has obviously had an extensive turnout with the ball. Was it a case of having nobody else for the penultimate over? WILLIAM PORTERFIELD: No, he bowls at difficult times. You look at all his overs and he never shirks away from that responsibility. It's great having someone fast in the top order that can do that job with the ball, and as you've seen throughout this tournament it's very difficult, and he's bowled very well in stages and been unlucky. And it's one of those things it's not easy over to bowl. On another day, he wins the game basically in the second-to-last over. But yeah, he got a hold of a couple today, and with four men out it's a very difficult job. Q. Another inspired choice may have been putting Andrew Balbirnie at No. 4. Whose decision was that? WILLIAM PORTERFIELD: I don't know. That came out as we were talking about it in the dugout, thought it might be slightly easier with the right left, and he came out as someone trying to beat. He's flexible in the way he's been striking the ball. Whenever he rides in the crease there, he just seemed to step up a notch and pulls himself in with Joyce and had the straps down, and that partnership was a very firm partnership and got the momentum into the innings and set it up then for the back end, and obviously the two of them played very, very well. Q. It was vitally important obviously to keep us in the tournament. Comment on the fact that it was Zimbabwe, a team we expect to beat, sort of got us over the line. WILLIAM PORTERFIELD: We're going into every game, there's two points up for grabs, and today was no different. We were wanting to make it three from four, but every game there's the same amount of points up for grabs, and India game is no different. We've got to go into that looking to take two points and follow from there. Q. Can I just ask what your take was on that sort of controversial catch of Sean William standing on the boundary, the skipper? WILLIAM PORTERFIELD: Look, I thought it was a fantastic catch. They showed great skill under pressure. It was close to the line. I haven't actually seen it since we've come off. We saw a couple replays on the big screen, which is obviously pretty inconclusive from there. But it's very difficult to tell when you're a fielder on the rope and especially under pressure and the way he took the catch was a great skill. Whether he has or hasn't, I don't know. We've come off and there's been a bit of debate, so obviously he's very close to it. But when there's that debate, he may have or may not, I don't know. I haven't seen it, and I'm guessing nobody has actually said he has or he hasn't, so I'm guessing it's pretty inconclusive. Q. Shh you umpire in your opinion have called for a review before he left the ground there? WILLIAM PORTERFIELD: Well, he did, didn't he? He gave it up. He wouldn't have left the ground if he didn't. Q. He didn't go to the third umpire and call whether it hit the boundary. WILLIAM PORTERFIELD: I don't know if he did or didn't. ED JOYCE: I thought he did. WILLIAM PORTERFIELD: I thought he did when he gave it up. That's what I thought. It's news to me if he didn't. Q. Ed, perhaps I could ask you about batting with Balbirnie. He seemed to give you a lot of, I guess, confidence to just play your natural game at the other end, and knowing that he was ticking the score over, how impressive is he as a young Ireland batsman coming through? ED JOYCE: Yeah, he's been brilliant the last six months as he's come into the team. I was just saying in the interview after the game that I actually hadn't seen him really bat before this tournament. He got a brilliant hundred against New Zealand there in Dubai against nearly a full strength New Zealand attack, and he was great today. He played brilliantly against South Africa, obviously got beaten very well in that game, but he gave us 60 odd. So he's come into the team and done brilliantly, you're right, he took the pressure off me today, hit his first ball for four and just rotated his strike really well, and that gave me the ability to sort of do the same thing and the confidence to do that, as well. It was very lucky getting to sort of 30 or 40, but after that it sort of felt pretty good. Q. William, to have one of the senior players and one of the more junior players on the team really kind of gel together, that must be quite encouraging, isn't it, that the work is being shared, I guess? WILLIAM PORTERFIELD: Yeah, it is, and the way Balby has been playing, as Joycie said, the last six months, you wouldn't think he hasn't played many games for us. You'd think he was one of the senior players, how he's come in and played with that freedom, so that's great to see. Hopefully he continues that on and it just breeds confidence with the rest of the lineup, really. Q. You mentioned the points are up for grabs, obviously, against India, but now that they've secured a quarterfinals berth, does that sort of leave you thinking that there's an opportunity there while their guard is down? WILLIAM PORTERFIELD: No, I don't think their guard will ever be down. They're a squad of 15, so whatever they decide to do, they decide to do. It's a long tournament, and they're not going to look to lose any momentum from their point of view. Whatever they decide to do is out of our control. Whoever they decide to play, it doesn't really bother me. But yeah, we've just got to keep all the momentum going and keep on improving at the little things we want to and keep taking things forward. Q. We only need one more win to reach the quarterfinals. Did you think you'd have to beat three full members to get through to the quarterfinals at the start of the tournament? WILLIAM PORTERFIELD: It's very hard to say when you come in at the start of such a long tournament, what you will need, what you won't need, whatever. We just tried to break it down really and take each game as it comes, and whatever we need coming down to the last game, we need, but as I said, we just take this India game now and that's all we can look forward to. We've managed to deal with the West Indies game and the UAE game and not look past them, and there's so many things that can happen in all our games and so many things have happened. The India game is next up for us on Tuesday. We've got to freshen up when we arrive in Hamilton and be ready to go there. Q. We're making it so much more difficult for our batsmen, and obviously we've got the Indian batting lineup to come. Any closer to getting it right, the bowling? WILLIAM PORTERFIELD: Well, we've been able to win three for four so we're doing something right along the way. Q. How much impressive was the way the team bounced back today, especially looking at the background of what happened against South Africa? WILLIAM PORTERFIELD: Yeah, it was actually -- as big as the defeat was on paper against South Africa, the way we came off and the way we approached the next few days was very pleasing because we've had that sense of calmness when we walked off and the sense of composure that was like, yeah, that's happened, but how can we improve, how can we move on to the next game, and I liked the way our mood was within the camp. It was actually a very composed, calm feeling around the group, and we managed to take that forward into this game today and was very confident going out there and did everything we wanted to do, and we've got across the line. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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