Balbirnie ton keeps Ireland hopes alive

Ireland roared back to rivalry with an announcement conclusion over joint-leaders European nation to shut the gap between the 2 to simply one purpose.

With each groups still to play another game and therefore the alternative four groups still to play 2, the race for the ultimate – and automatic qualification to the oddity tournament in England next summer – is ready to travel right all the way down to the wire.

They may have spluttered through a lot of of the competition however eire were irresistible on Sunday. Their marquee players – Andy Balbirnie, Tim Murtagh, Boyd pol, the writer brothers – all evidenced their pedigree during this make-or-break fixture, making certain that Ireland's 25-run conclusion keeps their World Cup dream alive.

For European nation, meanwhile, whose type coming back into the match had, in Calum MacLeod's words, been “one ball wanting perfect”, are going to be verbalise a middle-order collapse that set them back when such a robustious begin to their run-chase.

At 112/2 when twenty four overs, with the captain Kyle Coetzer rattling on and therefore the in-form Richie Berrington subsiding in, European nation would have invented their probabilities of reeling in Ireland's competitive however hardly insurmountable 271 for nine.


Desperate for a wicket, William Porterfield recalled Boyd pol into the attack, and therefore the 6ft 8in fast straightaway delivered, promise Coetzer on the crease to require out his off-stump.

SCORES briefly

IRELAND: 271 for nine in fifty overs (Balbirnie one zero five, N writer seventy, K writer 46; weal 3-43, Sharif 2-52)

SCOTLAND: 246 all move into forty seven.4 overs (Coetzer sixty one, MacLeod 21, Berrington forty four, Sharif 34, Watt thirty one not out; Murtagh                2-51, McCarthy 2-44, pol 4-63, Simi 2-33)      

Result: eire won by twenty five runs

Player-of-the-match: Andy Balbirnie.