Scotland overhaul huge total to defeat Ireland

It was a play-off for the right to play in the matches they had been invited to host at the 1999 World Cup, and it was turgid stuff. Scotland's 187 for eight was plenty too many for Ireland, who were all out for 141 in reply.

Yesterday's renewal of the rivalry was a beautiful demonstration of how far both nations' cricket has come. The teams shared 643 runs on a jaw-dropping day at Citylets Grange, and the most pleasant surprise was that the Scots came out on top.

It was the day a downtrodden national team truly came out of their shell. Gordon Drummond's youngsters beat the Netherlands 2-0 in Aberdeen the other week but to outscore Ireland, cricket's most progressive force and a team who eat the elite for breakfast, in a run riot was truly monumental.

In the morning, Paul Stirling scored an effortless hundred off 83 balls, including six sixes, and of course we assumed this was incomparable hitting. But Richie Berrington came in with Scotland's patient run chase in danger of going to waste and hit six maximums of his own, racing to a half-century off 20 balls.

What a day: a sumptuous serving after Monday's damp squib of a cancellation. And Berrington's salvo was only the cherry on the top.

Across the Irish Sea they used to talk of Eoin Morgan in reverent tones, as they knew the extent of his potential. Stirling could turn out to be even better.

The Belfast 20-year-old is shy but he believes in cricket as a box-office entity and, when a ball asks to be hit, he will not hesitate to strike it for six. Safyaan Sharif discovered this with the fourth ball of his second Scotland appearance. Having already driven him above the infield for four, Stirling scythed the young Dunfermline bowler over the boundary at extra cover.

He cruised to 50 using the elegant William Porterfield as foil, and then opened his shoulders in sight of three figures. When he cleared the Grange tennis courts to move to 94 off 73 balls it was his second six off an over from Kyle Coetzer, the seventh of eight bowlers used by a captain rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic.

Drummond's great faith in his talented crop must have been sorely tested when Ireland were 267 for two, with Andrew Poynter (51) and Alex Cusack (71) making hay.It was reaffirmed with interest when off-spinner Preston Mommsen removed Poynter and Kevin O'Brien in successive balls, the latter caught brilliantly by Majid Haq at full stretch, and restored fully when Josh Davey took his own wicket haul to three to undermine Ireland's famously-resilient tail.

After a couple of injudicious shots, Fraser Watts (55 balls for his 50) joined Coetzer (45 balls) in taking a sensible approach to a daunting run chase.

Lacking Stirling's raw power, they drove and flicked the ball along the ground in an opening partnership worth 129 that kept Scotland ahead of Ireland's comparative score.

They only dipped beneath that mark after Coetzer was bowled by Boyd Rankin for 89 and Calum MacLeod's difficult vigil was ended by the same bowler.

Scotland teams of old would have folded like accordions under the resultant pressure but the level-headed Davey took stock and waited for the right time to strike.

When 71 were needed off eight overs, Berrington was given the nod and unleashed a series of blows every bit as convincing as Stirling's battery. The Greenock man so brutally knocked the stuffing out of the Irish that Scotland were able saunter into the promised land with nine balls to spare.