FOR A CHANGE, the weather worked in Ireland’s favour.
Now Phil Simmons’ side are on the cusp of a place in the World T20 Super 10s after they beat the United Arab Emirates in a bizarre finish to their Group B clash this afternoon.
Two power failures and then a rain delay meant that Ireland never got to finish their innings but were declared winners by 21 runs on the Duckworth Lewis method.
“I’ve never finished a game like this before,” captain William Porterfield admitted afterwards, “but the most pleasing thing is that we’ve come away with the win.”
It leaves them on top of Group B, knowing that a win against the Netherlands on Friday will guarantee their progress to the next round.
“It was important to win well and also to make a statement against one of our fellow associates,” man of the match Ed Joyce said after his 43 with the bat.
“We’re still at the top of the tree so it’s good to get a relatively easy win.
“We’ve played well at a higher level for a while now and we’re very aware that the teams around us are improving all the time.
“I think it’d be fair to say that a lot of the associate teams are a lot stronger than they were a few years ago. We’ve played a lot of very close games against teams like the UAE, Afghanistan, Kenya and Scotland in the last few years.
“We’ve come out on top most of the time but we definitely can’t take anything for granted.”
After keeping the UAE to a manageable 123-6, Ireland were determined to make early inroads in their run chase.
They were dealt an early blow when opening batsman Paul Stirling was forced to retire after just five balls with an elbow injury.
But Ireland are confident that the star of their opening win over Zimbabwe will be fit before Friday.
“It’s just a bit of a soft tissue [injury],” Porterfield revealed. “Everything has come back clear.
“He had a precautionary x-ray to see if anything was wrong and he’s just got a pretty tender back of the elbow. He’ll rest up and he’ll be fine come Friday.”
