ANDY BALBIRNIE knows that, but for one stroke of good luck, he could be sitting at home in Dublin watching the World Cup on TV instead of preparing to meet the might of South Africa in Canberra.

It's the toughest challenge yet but, if Ireland do upset one of the tournament favourites in their third Pool B match, don't be surprised if Balbirnie is in the thick of things on the ground where his ascent into the Ireland middle order began.

Back in October, the Pembroke and Middlesex batsman was out of the runs and a place in the World Cup squad looked unlikely when an injury to Gary Wilson gave him a chance to impress the selectors against ACT Comets at the Manuka Oval.

"I wasn't playing in the game but Willo injured himself fielding near the end of their innings and couldn't bat, and as it was a practice match I was able to bat as a substitute for him," Balbirnie (right) said. "If it wasn't for that I may well not have been here."

Grabbing the chance, he top-scored with 86 in a thrilling one-wicket win and followed up with two more half-centuries in three innings on the acclimatisation tour before notching his first Ireland century against New Zealand 'A' in Abu Dhabi and cementing a place in the batting order.

"I always knew I was good enough to play at this level, but up to that innings in Canberra I'd probably been a bit tentative and I'd not scored many runs in the games in Brisbane. Once I started showing more intent the scores started to come."

Whether he can click against Dale Steyn and arguably the best bowling attack in the world is another matter but Balbirnie feels there is a big score for him somewhere in the tournament and where better than the Manuka Oval, where Ireland trained yesterday.

"I'm really looking forward to facing probably the best bowling attack I've ever faced," Balbirnie said. "It's a big playing area here and the pitch might just be a touch slower - but still really good to bat on."

Win or lose, the match will be a memorable one for Kevin O'Brien as he plays his 232nd game and overtakes Andrew White as Ireland's most capped player.

O'Brien was given his debut in 2006 by Adi Birrell, who will be in the opposition dressing room as assistant coach of South Africa.

Ireland's prospects of reaching the quarter-finals received a small boost yesterday when Pakistan were unable to greatly improve their poor net run-rate in beating Zimbabwe by 20 runs in a low-scoring match in Brisbane.

In Pool A, England's dismal tournament continued when they lost to Sri Lanka by nine wickets, despite Joe Root making a century in a total of 309-6. England have now been on the wrong end of two of the three biggest run chases in World Cup history and need to win their remaining games against Bangladesh and Afghanistan to sneak into the last eight.