Pick confident ahead of Ireland

Moeen Ali - England Under 19 captain © Getty Images

England will head into their second group game at the Under 19 World Cup in Colombo confident of extending their winning run as they look to inflict a second defeat on Ireland.

Having beaten Nepal by 77 runs in their opening match, England could clinch a place in the quarter-finals by beating an Ireland side who are licking their wounds after a 118-run defeat by Zimbabwe on Sunday.

Confidence is high in the England camp after victories over pre-tournament favourites India and South Africa in the two warm-up games which saw them bounce back from 11 straight defeats on the tour of Bangladesh.

Coach Andy Pick believes the run of three successive wins since their arrival in Sri Lanka means England are now being treated with more respect.

He told ecb.co.uk: “Ireland had a disappointing day against Zimbabwe so I don’t suppose they will be overly confident.

“I said to our boys at the team meeting that the one thing that the two practice match victories will have done is that people will be changing the way they are thinking when they’re coming up to face England.

“All the countries said they fancied their chances against England this time based on what happened in Bangladesh but all of a sudden, we beat two good Test-playing nations in two days and now we’ve beaten Nepal and I think that will have changed people’s thoughts towards us.”

Pick admits his side must improve if they are to go on and win the tournament and for now is just focusing on clinching a top-two place in Group D and progression to the knock-out stage.

He explained: “There are a couple of areas where we can improve. I think we are still making too many mistakes in areas of the game that are completely under our control and we’ve got to cut those down.

“As the tournament goes on, we’ll come up against individuals and teams who will play some very good cricket and that’s going to be hard enough as it is without us contributing to our own downfall by making silly little mistakes.

“We’ve got to try and eradicate more and more of those and then we’ll see how it goes.

“If we can beat Ireland then that pretty much guarantees us a berth in the quarter-finals and then from there it’s on the day whether someone can come up with a big performance.

“Three big performances and you never know what might happen but for the moment I’ll just be happy to get some wins under our belt this week before worrying too much about the quarter-finals.”

Ireland captain Eoin Morgan felt his side missed a golden chance of victory against Zimbabwe and expects his players to remain positive against England.

Reflecting on Sunday’s defeat, he said: “It is pretty disappointing especially after the first innings as I thought 214 was well within our grasp.

“Neil Gill was outstanding for us with the ball and when it came to our batting it was a combination of factors (behind our failings). They bowled very well and their opening bowler (Keegan Meth) bowled all his overs straight through.

“It was just one of those days for us. The fellas are now looking forward to England and trying to stay upbeat.”

Glamorgan seamer Huw Waters is likely to return to the England side after finally overcoming the chest infection which has sidelined him since the team’s arrival in Colombo.

“He could have played against Nepal really,” revealed Pick. “He spent two or three days in the hotel and then had a practice on Sunday for a little while, which was his first time out in the heat for a while.

“We just thought we’d give him another couple of days to completely clear it up and finish his course of antibiotics. That will give him the best chance when it comes to playing and I would envisage him being in the starting line-up against Ireland.”