We have individual plans for every South African player: Ireland captain William Porterfield

Captain William Porterfield is confident in his side ahead of Ireland’s clash against South Africa

Ireland captain William Porterfield has said that the form of AB de Villiers won’t force the European team to change their plans. Speaking ahead of his side’s clash with South Africa, Porterfield was confident in his team’s ability to cope with the threat South Africa pose.

Porterfield said, “We've got to control what we can control. If something out of the ordinary happens at the other end, so be it. We've played against great line-ups before and the lads have done very well.

“I'm confident we will cope. We have our own individual plans for each of the [South African players] and hopefully we see the back of him [AB de Villiers] early.”

Chris Gayle’s astonishing inning of 215 runs from 147 balls against Zimbabwe came at Manuka Oval, the ground Ireland and South Africa will go head to head. Everyone’s eyes, at this match, will be on two of the most destructive batsmen in the world in AB de Villiers and Kevin O’Brien. They have the record for two of the fastest centuries in World Cup history, with the South African scoring a 52-ball century in this edition, missing O’Brien’s record by just 2 balls set in 2011.

Porterfield backed Kevin to repeat history and give Ireland the ‘X-factor’.

“If Kev can go and repeat what he's done in the past, then we've got that little bit of X-factor ourselves,” Porterfield said.

Ireland have won both their matches at the World Cup so far with wins over two-times World Cup winners West Indies and fellow Associate nation UAE.