T20 World Cup: Pressure on West Indies to win crucial Group B match - Ireland's Balbirnie

Ireland kept their hopes of advancing to the Super 12s alive with a stirring win over Scotland

Ireland captain Andrew Balbirnie says the pressure is all on West Indies as they prepare for their winner-takes-all T20 World Cup meeting on Friday.

The victorious team will advance to the Super 12s stage of the competition, with the losers going home.

Two-time tournament champions West Indies were favourites to top Group B but remain in a dogfight for a top-two finish after a shock loss to Scotland.

"They're going to be expected to win," said Balbirnie.

"I think a lot of people are going to expect them the win, they've won the competition twice and they've got some hugely experienced T20 players."

"There's obviously a lot of pressure on West Indies coming in as probably the group favourites and maybe starting slower than they would have liked."

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All four teams in Group B go into the final round of the tournament's first stage with a chance to qualify, having each collected two points from two games.

Ireland opened their campaign with a comprehensive loss to Zimbabwe, but pulled themselves back into contention with a stirring six-wicket success over Scotland on Wednesday.

They were staring down the barrel of another early World Cup exit having fallen to 61-4 by the 10th over, only for Curtis Campher and George Dockrell to put on a match-winning stand of 119.

"We don't really fear any team anymore, that's kind of gone out of our mindset," Balbirnie continued.

"Sometimes a team might be more skilful than us on the day, and that probably showed against Zimbabwe, but there's definitely no fear of any opposition when we go into a game.

"There's definitely been a bit of a shift in the thinking over the past number of years with this Irish group, and that's driven from the top by the coaches and all the coaching staff."

Ireland last met West Indies in a three-match one-day series at the start of the year, claiming a magnificent 2-1 series win in Jamaica.

The victory took its place among a number of eye-catching results Ireland having achieved in ODI cricket, however they have yet to find similar success in T20.

"It's certainly be a big challenge for us tomorrow but I think the confidence we got from [beating Scotland] will hopefully show," Balbirnie said.

"It's a really exciting place to be, particularly after that first game. There's some real confidence in the group after yesterday, it was just really special to be part of.

"It would be disappointing if we couldn't back it up tomorrow, because if we don't we'll be on the plane [home] on Saturday."