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In the 42nd Match of Super Eights, played at Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados between Ireland and Bangladesh, irony was the order of the day. Primarily, this match was supposed to be one of the most explosive matches in the world cup between arch rivals India and Pakistan. But instead of those two, their tormentors, Ireland and Bangladesh fought with each other in this match, while Indian and Pakistani fans, who booked the reservations well before time, raised a match against each other beyond the boundary.

The minnows, Ireland and Bangladesh were expected to present a tight fight. The mercurial Bengali tigers were on par with the sharp Irish sharks. The systematic ploy by the Irishmen started to succeed from the ball one. The two strikers from Bangladesh, Mashrafe Mortaza and Shahadat Hossain failed to get anything from the bouncy Kensington Oval wicket. 92-run partnership between the Irish openers set the tone for the match. Their opening pair, Porterfield and Bray chalked out a very calculated and professional innings. Though they were fully helped by sloppy and loose Bengali bowling and fielding. Porterfield 85 completed in 136 balls and included just 3 fours, that shows the hard work he put in and the temperament was all too spectacular.

Bangladesh got another chance to make a convincing come back in the game, when after getting rid of openers, they also two quick wickets of Morgan and O’Brien, but they dumped it by an inordinate display in the field. Then Kevin O’Brien and skipper Trent Johnston strengthened the innings and didn’t let Bengalis return to the match. They crafted a superb partnership before Kevin ran himself out for 48 off 44 balls. But Johnston carried on his blows-spree and enabled Ireland to reach the reasonable target of 243.

Though the four 4’s by Tamim Iqbal ignited the passion for Bangladesh, Boyd Rankin the tallest bowler in the world cup, ditched their hopes by sending the both openers back after a short time. Tamim Iqbal (29) and Shahriar Nafees(7), both fell victim to Rankin.

To make the early wounds more dangerous, Botha struck heavily by shredding the middle order. He got Aftab Ahmed (12) with the help of O’Brien and then run out Saqibul Hasan on just 3 runs. To the temporary relief of Bangladeshi squad, Mohammad Ashraful and Habibul Bashar halted the Irish carnage temporarily. Mohammad Ashraful’s sublime shots resurrected the false hopes, but his 5 fours and 1 six wasn’t enough. Rankin broke the Bengali back when he induced Ashraful to pull straight to Dave Langford-Smith fine leg. Though Habibul Bashar stood their watching wickets tumbling down around him, he could do nothing materialistic to save his team from a 74 runs defeat. Porterfield was the man of the match for his superb innings.