Johnston Invokes the Spirit of  2007 as Irish Women Set Out on Twenty20 World Cup Odyssey

Ireland's Women's Coach Trent Johnston is happy with how his team's preparations have gone so far in the build up to their opening T20 World Cup match against New Zealand.

Johnston invoked the Spirit of 2007 when the Irish Men's team introduced themselves to the cricketing world. He sees many of the qualities of the 2007 team in his charges, eager and willing to learn and full of Irish fight and passion.

Hopefully the women can cause a shock or two along the way in what should be a great experience for Women's Cricket in Ireland.

Barry Chambers: Trent, how have the preparations gone?

Trent Johnston: Yeah very well. The girls have, we've played two good games down in Dhaka against Sri Lanka and India, and posted 120 on both days, which was very good.

Probably a few things we let ourselves down, probably basics, bowling the ball in more consistent areas. But the girls have trained pretty well here over the last couple of days and in Sylhet. So we can't be any more prepared heading into the game against New Zealand tomorrow.

Barry Chambers: They look as if they know what they're doing, you can see the professionalism that you've brought in the last maybe couple of months to the team?

Trent Johnston: Yeah it's good, I just think they probably needed a bit of direction and a bit o clarity in their roles, we try to get it out, myself and Mark (Lane), so the girls have hit the ground running.

They're looking for information and they're almost like sponges, and that sort of thing, so if you can feed them that information, they'll soak that up and then they try and put it, implement it into their game. So it's exciting times for them, going into their first T20 World Cup.

Barry Chambers: And not an easy start for you, New Zealand and Australia?

Trent Johnston: Yeah it's good, you've got to play these guys at some stage. So, we watched the game yesterday, and there wasn't certainly anything there to scare you. They were pretty basic, you know bowled it pretty straight at the top of off stump, and it was quite difficult to score, so we spoke about that this morning, so the girls, we've put that in practice here today. So  go back to the hotel now and rest up, and have a bit of a chat this evening, and then get stuck into it tomorrow.

Barry Chambers: I'm reminded of 2007 and the men, when I look at this team. There's the enthusiasm there. do you think they can replicate what the men did and pull of a major shock or two?

Trent Johnston: I think so, Twenty20 cricket is quite funny. We know that we need to get into the game, or stay in the game, in the first six overs, whether we're batting or bowling. That will be an imperative that we do that. And if that's the case, well then we'll give ourselves a good opportunity to win games.

Me being a part of that 2007 is exactly like what we're witnessing here with the girls. And I've tried to sort of base our preparations around what Adi (Birrell) did with us back then.

So that formula was pretty good, so the girls are of a similar ability to what the guys were back then. And they're very good and listen to everything. Their commitment is great, and you can ask nothing more as a coach. So looking forward to finally getting stuck in to it tomorrow.