April 17, 2007	Tuesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 28, 1428

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BRIDGETOWN (Barbados), April 16: Ireland dashed Bangladesh's slim World Cup semi-final hopes after an excellent all-round display handed the debutants a 74-run victory on Sunday (also partially reported in Monday’s edition).

The result gave Ireland their first Super Eights win, leaving both teams on two points each and fighting to avoid finishing at the bottom of the table with one match to play.

Having earmarked the contest against Bangladesh as the one Super Eights match they could win, Ireland ensured their surprise progress to the second round at the expense of Pakistan had not been in vain.

Opening batsman William Porterfield top-scored with a chancy 85 to guide Ireland to their highest Cup total of 243 for seven after choosing to bat.

Bangladesh slumped to the bottom of the standings after they were bowled out for 169, with their top order batsmen falling to reckless shots.

Ireland's amateur players took a lap of honour and their fans danced in the stands after claiming the battle of the two giant-killers.

Bangladesh never recovered after dropping three catches.

Man-of-the-Match Porterfield, dropped on 42 by left-arm spinner Mohammad Rafique off his own bowling, anchored the innings in his 136-ball knock containing just three fours.

Irish new ball bowlers Boyd Rankin and Dave Langford-Smith then used short-pitched bowling to exploit the poor temperament of Bangladesh batsmen.

Rankin forced opener Shahriar Nafees (7) to glove an attempted pull to wicket-keeper Niall O'Brien to trigger the collapse before Aftab Ahmed (12), opener Tamim Iqbal (29) and Mohammad Ashraful (35) all succumbed trying big shots.

All-rounder Andre Botha struck with his first delivery on his comeback from hamstring injury when he had Aftab caught behind chasing a wide ball.

After Bangladesh were 138 for eight in the 34th, skipper Habibul Bashar, dropped on four, pushed the score past 150 before being the last man out for 32.

The contest between the two surprise second-round qualifiers began in front of a sparse crowd after more than 20,000 ticket holders from India and Pakistan, who had been scheduled to meet on Sunday but were eliminated in the first round, chose to stay away from the Kensington Oval.

But as the ground began to fill up after organisers distributed more than 10,000 free tickets, Ireland made sure they did not suffer a repeat performance of last Friday's batting collapse – when they were all out for 91 – against holders Australia.

They began steadily with Porterfield and Bray raising their first double-figure opening partnership in the tournament.

Kevin O'Brien lashed 48 off 44 balls and skipper Trent Johnston, who elected to bat, hit 30 off 23 balls to add 77 in the last 10 overs and set the Irish on their path to victory.

 

Scoreboard
IRELAND:
W.T.S. Porterfield c Rafique b Mashrafe	85
J.P. Bray run out	31
E.J.G. Morgan run out	5
N.J. O’Brien c Tamim b Saqibul	10
K.J. O’Brien run out	48
D.T. Johnston c Shahriar b Mashrafe	30
A.R. White run out	4
D. Langford-Smith not out	6
A.C. Botha not out	1
EXTRAS (B-1, LB-11, W-6, NB-5)	23
TOTAL (for seven wkts, 50 overs)	243
FALL OF WKTS: 1-92 (Bray, 25.3 ov), 2-101 (Morgan, 27.5 ov), 3-128 (N.J. O’Brien, 33.2 ov), 4-176 (Porterfield, 41.3 ov), 5-215 (K.J. O’Brien, 47.1 ov), 6-233 (White, 48.5 ov), 7-237 (Johnston, 49.3 ov).
DID NOT BAT: W.K. McCallan, W.B. Rankin.
BOWLING: Mashrafe Mortaza 10-1-38-2 (3nb); Shahadat Hossain 9-1-51-0 (2nb, 1w); Abdur Razzak 9-0-48-0 (2w); Mohammad Rafique 10-0-42-0 (2w); Saqibul Hasan 10-0-44-1; Aftab Ahmed 2-0-8-0 (1w).
BANGLADESH:
Tamim Iqbal b Johnston	29
Shahriar Nafees c N.J. O’Brien b Rankin	7
Aftab Ahmed c N.J. O’Brien b Botha	12
Saqibul Hasan run out	3
M. Ashraful c Langford-Smith b Rankin	35
Habibul Bashar b Johnston	32
Mushfiqur Rahim b McCallan	16
Mashrafe Mortaza c and b Langford-Smith	0
M. Rafique c Johnston b Langford-Smith	2
Abdur Razzak b McCallan	11
Shahadat Hossain not out	0
EXTRAS (LB-4, W-18)	22
TOTAL (all out, 41.2 overs)	169
FALL OF WKTS: 1-18 (Shahriar Nafees, 6.3 ov), 2-45 (Aftab Ahmed, 10.1 ov), 3-48 (Saqibul Hasan, 12.4 ov), 4-93 (Tamim Iqbal, 19.6 ov), 5-102 (Mohammad Ashraful, 21.6 ov), 6-131 (Mushfiqur Rahim, 30.4 ov), 7-134 (Mashrafe Mortaza, 31.2 ov), 8-138 (Mohammad Rafique, 33.4 ov), 9-169 (Abdur Razzak, 40.4 ov).
BOWLING: Rankin 8-0-42-2 (9w); Langford-Smith 10-1-27-2 (3w); Botha 8-0-31-1; Johnston 7.2-0-40-2 (2w); McCallan 8-1-25-2.
RESULT: Ireland won by 74 runs.
UMPIRES: B.F. Bowden (New Zealand) and S.A. Bucknor (West Indies).
TV UMPIRE: S.J.A. Taufel (Australia).
MATCH REFEREE: J.J. Crowe (New Zealand).
MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: William Porterfield.—Reuters