Ireland beat the UAE by 22 runs in their Twenty20 Cricket World Cup Super 4 game in Dubai to move them to within one win of a place in the finals, writes John Kenny.
The impressive victory sets up a crunch match against the Netherlands on Saturday to decide who goes to the West Indies.
The Netherlands beat Afghanistan in the earlier match to effectively set up two semi-finals with Ireland taking on the Dutch and the UAE facing Afghanistan with the winners of both making the qualifying final and guaranteeing a place in the Twenty20 world cup.
After William Porterfield had won the toss he decided to bat and his side started in a rush scoring 29 off the first 3.5 overs before the skipper - who made 22 off 13 deliveries - was caught and bowled by Saqib Ali with the score on 29.
Andrew Botha only lasted six balls before he was bowled by Ali for three, but Niall O'Brien continued where Porterfield left off and together with Alex Cusack and Trent Johnston took the score past the century mark.
O'Brien was out for on 46 in the 16th over with the score on 103 and Ireland eventually went onto make 152 for 7 off 20 overs, with Johnston and Gary Wilson adding 19 valuable runs apiece.
The UAE were immediately rocked in the very first over of their reply when Porterfield brilliantly ran out Arfan Haider for a duck, followed by Mohammad Iqbal who became Peter Connell's first victim.
Connell also got the wicket of Fayyaz Ahmed in only his second over and the UAE slumped to 17 for three off 2.1 overs and Ireland sensed an early end to the game.
However Saqib Ali scored two massive sixes to give the UAE innings some momentum as he and Khurram Khan moved the score onto 54 before Alex Cusack made a stunning catch off his own bowling to dismiss the dangerous Khan for 10.
Ali continued to be a thorn in Ireland’s side and he raced to his 50 off only 38 deliveries to keep his side up with the run rate, along with Abdul Rehman who made his 20 off 19 deliveries.
Rehman fell lbw to George Dockrell in the 17th over and when Ali was bowled for a cracking 63 by Alex Cusack in the 18th over, the game was up for the UAE, who were finally bowled out for 130, giving the Irish a winning margin of 22 runs.
Ireland must now beat the Netherlands in their final game, which starts at noon on Saturday to reach the final which follows immediately after the last two Super 4 games on Saturday night.
