We will give our best against India: Niall O’Brien by Barry Chambers

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Player:	NJ O'Brien, KJ O'Brien
Event:	ICC World Twenty20 2009

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DateLine: 9th June 2009

 

Niall O'Brien was in ebullient mood following a famous Irish win over Bangladesh.

 

"It's Twenty20 cricket and we have already seen an upset by Holland against England at Lord's, and we said at the last World Cup we are not just here to make up the numbers, we want to win as many games as we can.

 

"We've got a belief in the squad that we've got a very talented bunch of players. We are here to win cricket matches and we got off to a great start today.

 

"It's the world champions but we are going to give it our best shot on Wednesday. There will be nothing left on the pitch, I can guarantee you that.

 

“Today for us, it doesn't seem like an upset. We were confident of winning and we believe we are a better side than Bangladesh – we have showed it again.

 

On brother Kevin's wonderful batting display "He came up to me yesterday and said ‘I'm playing really badly, I'm playing really badly’. I said to him ‘mate, it doesn't matter how you've played before the tournament starts. Once you walk out for a competitive match, that's when it counts and Kev has done brilliantly for us again today. He's as big a hitter as any of these teams have – you look at Yuvraj Singh, Kev hits it as far as them all.

 

“He's a power tool to have towards the back end of the innings and he had great support today from John Mooney. It's one of the biggest games he has played in his life and you'd swear that John has done it 100 times before.”

 

On the substantial Irish support: “I live beside Lansdowne Road and it sounds like Lansdowne Road during a Six Nations match. It spurs you on when you hit a six and there are 10,000 or 15,000 people cheering you on.“

 

On how Irish cricket has progressed: “Playing numbers are up since the last World Cup, and although we are still a long way from pushing for Test status, we are going in the right direction. The future's bright and the important thing for Irish cricket is to get our best side playing every game. We have two professional players now but five of us are with counties so we only play 30-40 per cent of games every year.

 

“We need to go and put in two or three more good performances in the Super Eights, maybe take a scalp or two, and in two or three years' time keep pushing towards more professional cricketers.”