Kevin O’Brien hammered a Herculean century as Ireland pulled off one of the biggest upsets in the history of World Cup cricket defeating their mighty neighbours England by three wickets at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore yesterday.
The Irish erupted into unbridled celebration when John Mooney struck the first ball of the 50th over from James Anderson through mid-wicket for a boundary.
The moment the left-hander hit the winning runs, Ireland also completed the highest run chase in World Cup history. Chasing what looked like an imposing target of 328, the Irish rode on the fastest World Cup century from right-handed O’Brien who set the stadium alight with six sixes and thirteen fours.
His audacious 50-ball hundred eclipsed Australia’s Matthew Hayden’s 66-ball 100 against South Africa at St Kitts in 2007. The right-hander actually launched a counter-attack never seen before in a World Cup match after England looked on course for an easy win when they reduced the Irish to 111-5 in 24.2 overs. But O’Brien turned the match on its head with a mammoth 162-run sixth-wicket partnership with Alex Cusack (47). When O’Brien was eventually run-out for 113 off 63 balls, Ireland were left to score 11 runs off 10 balls what the tail did in style.
During the course of the victory, Ireland broke the previous record for the most runs batting second to win a World Cup match — 313-7 by Sri Lanka against Zimbabwe in 1992.
Earlier, England racked up 327 for eight as Jonathan Trott equalled the record for the fastest 1,000 one-day international runs.
Trott, who scored 92, drew level with West Indies great Vivian Richards and England teammate Kevin Pietersen in taking just 21 innings to reach the landmark.
He shared a third-wicket stand of 167 with Warwickshire teammate Ian Bell (81), but they both fell within sight of a hundred to medium-pacer Mooney.
The match proved that even a score of 300 is not safe on this batting paradise at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. England rattled up 327, while Ireland, the strongest of the Associate nations, made more than a match of it despite losing the top-half of their batting with half the overs and two thirds of the chase left.
England had on Friday taken part in the match of the tournament thus far, on the same ground against hosts India, where they managed to tie the game chasing a mammoth 338 and this one turned out to be no lesser entertainment.
Courtesy of The Daily Star
