March 25, 2007	Sunday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 5, 1428

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KINGSTON (Jamaica), March 24: Shivnarine Chanderpaul struck an impressive unbeaten century as World Cup hosts West Indies beat surprise package Ireland by eight wickets in the final Group D match at Sabina Park on Friday.

Ireland made 183 for eight in 48 overs after rain stopped play and under the Duckworth-Lewis rules West Indies were set a target of 190 which they knocked off comfortably with 9.5 overs to spare.

With both teams having already secured their places in the Super Eights stage, the win allows Brian Lara's men to carry two points into the next phase.

Chanderpaul's sixth one day century, his first in a World Cup, came in 108 balls and included 10 fours and four sixes.

He was rarely troubled by a harmless Irish attack on a good batting wicket but the Guyana-born opener showed the full range of his shots in an innings of controlled aggression.

After the hosts lost Chris Gayle early on for 18, Chanderpaul was well supported by Ramnaresh Sarwan (36) and Marlon Samuels (27 not out) as the hosts clocked up their third consecutive win in the competition.

It was a sobering game for Ireland who were second best throughout the contest – struggling with the bat against the combination of pace and spin offered by the West Indian bowling attack and then unable to penetrate with the ball.

Although the Irish, without their injured Australian-born captain Trent Johnston, took a lap of honour at the end of the game to applaud their supporters it will be the memory of their exciting tie with Zimbabwe and shock victory over Pakistan that motivated the applause.

The highlight of their day was another aggressive innings from their Australian-born opening batsman Jeremy Bray who struck his side's top score of 41.

But once Bray had gone, driving Jerome Taylor straight to sub-fielder Lendl Simmons, Ireland were in trouble at 82 for four.

Kevin O'Brien and Andre Botha steadied the ship taking the total to 129 before O'Brien was caught in the deep by Ramnaresh Sarwan off spinner Chris Gayle.

Gayle, who went for only 23 off his 10 overs, had succeeded in slowing down the run-rate though and the lower order failed to provide any boost for Ireland with West Indian all-rounder Dwayne Bravo taking two wickets in two balls towards the end.

The reply was all about Chanderpaul who showed no mercy – crashing four consecutive fours off Boyd Rankin's fifth over and then he took on Andre Botha – hitting him for two fours and one six in the South African seamer's fourth over.

Chanderpaul said that the lack of pressure and the need to take a good run-rate with them into the next stage had motivated his free stroke-play.

West Indies will again feature in the opening match of the Super Eight stage of the competition, when they face reigning World champions Australia on Tuesday at Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua.

Ireland meet either England or Kenya in their opening Super Eight match next Friday at the Providence Stadium in Guyana.

Scoreboard

IRELAND:

J.P. Bray c sub (L. Simmons) b Taylor 41

W.T.S. Porterfield c Gayle b Powell 0

E.J.G. Morgan c Ramdin b Powell 18

N.J. O’Brien c Ramdin b Bradshaw 11

A.C. Botha c Ramdin b Gayle 28

K.J. O’Brien c Sarwan b Gayle 16

A.R. White b Bravo 18

W.K. McCallan not out 20

J. Mooney c Ramdin b Bravo 0

D. Langford-Smith not out 8

EXTRAS (B-4, LB-11, W-6, NB-2) 23

TOTAL (for eight wkts, 48 overs) 183

FALL OF WKTS: 1-3 (Porterfield, 1.2 ov), 2-61 (Morgan, 15.3 ov), 3-76 (N.J. O’Brien, 20.2 ov), 4-82 (Bray, 21.6 ov), 5-129 (K.J. O’Brien, 35.4 ov), 6-139 (Botha, 39.2 ov), 7-163 (White, 45.5 ov), 8-163 (Mooney, 45.6 ov).

DID NOT BAT: W.B. Rankin.

BOWLING: Taylor 8-0-37-1 (1w); Powell 9-2-24-2 (1w); Bradshaw 9-0-27-1; Bravo 7-1-35-2 (2nb, 1w); Gayle 10-0-23-2 (1w); Samuels 5-0-23-0.

WEST INDIES:

C.H. Gayle c White b Langford-Smith 18

S. Chanderpaul not out 102

R.R. Sarwan c K. O’Brien b McCallan 36

M.N. Samuels not out 27

EXTRAS (LB-1, W-6) 7

TOTAL (for two wkts, 38.1 overs) 190

FALL OF WKTS: 1-24 (Gayle, 4.3 ov), 2-143 (Sarwan, 27.4 ov).

DID NOT BAT: B.C. Lara, D.J. Bravo, D.R. Smith, D. Ramdin, I.D.R. Bradshaw, D.B. Powell, J.E. Taylor.

BOWLING: Langford-Smith 9-1-33-1 (3w); Rankin 5-0-38-0 (2w); Botha 6-0-35-0; Mooney 4-1-22-0; McCallan 10-0-35-1 (1w); K.J. O’Brien 3-0-13-0; White 1.1-0-13-0.

RESULT: West Indies won by eight wickets after being set a revised target of 190 in 4D/L Method).

UMPIRES: B.F. Bowden (New Zealand) and I.J. Gould (England).

TV UMPIRE: B.G. Jerling (South Africa).

MATCH REFEREE: R.S. Mahanama (Sri Lanka).

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Shivnarine Chanderpaul.—Agencies