Dangerous Ireland take on mighty India !

Playing India in front of a mighty crowd pleases O Brien, the giant hitter of Ireland.

"We are looking forward to the match because it is not every day that you play in front of 50,000 spectators" said the pinch hitter "There is no pressure at all and it will be great to see people come out to watch us."

"India's batting lineup is the best in the World Cup," O'Brien said. "We are not going to do anything different but will look at areas we can bowl at. We will come up with some plans during team meetings."

He is not wrong, as IRE pits against one of the best batting sides in the world, which have top six batters that have scored 44.5 K runs in ODIs. Sachin alone has scored 17.7 K ODI runs!

He said he is not a fool to underestimate Indian bowling.

"Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel, Harbhajan (Singh), (Piyush) Chawla, they are all very good bowlers. Their bowling attack has world class performers." said the Irish wonder.

The crowd supported IRE in the last match, as they were the underdogs. On Sunday, they will have to face a hostile, fanatical crowd, who want nothing but an imperious Indian victory.

If History repeats itself, then India stand as favourites. Such hostile talk was there before the Indo BD match, but then Indian batting completely surpassed all Bengali tall talk. Tamim said India was haunted by the 07 WC loss. Sehwag countered that he wants to bat the 50 overs entire. Sehwag almost proved what he said, but then when he had batted 47 overs, the match was gone from Bengali hands !

It would have been impossible to think about an Irish win over India a week before. But O Brien's brilliant innings had changed all equations ! Now IRE is not an underdog, but an experienced side capable of staging any upset against any side.

Dhoni conceded that fielding and bowling are problem areas for India.

"We have some good bowlers, it is not as if our bowling is poor." the Indian skipper said "But yes, fielding is a problem and we may not improve much in that department."

It is true that other bowlers are leading in this World Cup. Afridi leads with 14 wickets and Roach with ten. Indian bowlers do not figure in the top five.

On the other hand, the media hype about 'formidable Indian batting' seems to be true. Four Indian batsmen, Sehwag, Sachin, Kohli and Dhoni figure in the top ten, in ICC ODI Rankings.