DHAKA: The world Cup cricket witnessed the first upset with the famous victory of Ireland over West Indies, shaped by the bats of Paul Stirling (92), Ed Joyce (84) and O'Brien (unbeaten 79) on Monday.
West Indies-born coach Phil Simmons is mighty pleased with his Irish boys for the historic victory at Nelson.
They lost six wickets to score 307 runs in response to West Indies-set 305-run target with 25 balls remaining.
The Man of the Match is Paul Stirling for his valuable 92 at the outset to set this up for Ireland.
West Indies bowler JE Taylor bagged three wickets while CH Gayle and MN Samuels picked up one wicket each.
Earlier Ireland WTS Porterfield won the toss and invited West Indies to bat first.
LMP Simmons (102) DJG Sammy (89) helped West Indies to score 304 for seven.
GH Dockrell picked up three wickets while MC Sorensen, JF Mooney and KJ O'Brien got one wicket each.
Ireland captain William Porterfield later said: “It is obviously fantastic to win. This sets us up nicely for the next few games. Belief has been growing within the squad for a long time and we know what we are capable of, not just in this game but the other games in the competition as well. 300 was probably about par as we knew the pitch was good with a very quick outfield, so we felt it was well within grasp. Stirling and Joyce kicked on beautifully for us before Niall finished off the chase. I believe Ireland can quality for the knockout stages. We are going into different conditions as we move on to Brisbane now. We just want to keep proving ourselves to the others.
West Indies captain Jason Holder said: It was a tough loss and obviously putting up 300 should have been enough, but it wasn't today. They came and added impetus for us (Lendl and Sammy) towards the end, but it wasn't enough. We tried to be better with our bowling at the Powerplay and the death overs, but we weren't able to pull them back. I think we just need to be a bit more precise when we set fields. We are just giving away too many boundaries during the middle overs.
BDST: 1253 HRS, FEB 16, 2015
