Marvellous win by Irish on england

England v Ireland: Kevin O'Brien seals the show for Irish

Cricket fans witnessed one of the biggest upsets in the history of cricket, as Ireland chased down a huge score posted by England in the last over of their innings for the loss of seven wickets in a group ‘B’ fixture of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011.

The star for the Irish team was Kevin O’Brien, who struck the fastest hundred in World Cup history to stun the English team.

Chasing a huge target of 327 runs under lights, Ireland was off to the worst possible start as they lost their captain, William Porterfield, on the very first ball of the innings from James Anderson.

However, Paul Stirling and Ed Joyce combined together to consolidate the innings for Ireland and scored 62 runs at more than a run a ball.

After Stirling’s dismissal, Ireland lost wickets at regular intervals and were soon in big trouble with five wickets down for just 111 runs on the board and had a huge mountain to climb.

From that point, Kevin O’Brien, and, Alex Cusack took control of the situation and developed the most important partnership for Irish cricket.

Kevin O’Brien struck sixes at will and made it look ridiculously easy to bat against the English bowlers. He completed his hundred off only 50 balls, which is the fastest in the history of World Cup cricket.

O’Brien scored 113 runs before he was run out in the second last over of the innings. He scored 162 runs with Cusack for the sixth wicket partnership, which took the game away from England’s grasp.

Graeme Swann was the only bowler, who troubled the Irish batsmen as he took three wickets for 47 runs in his 10 overs. England’s poor fielding was one of the major reasons for their downfall.

This is a huge loss for England and almost finishes their chances of finishing at the top of group ‘B’. Another loss could result in elimination before the quarter-final stage for the English team, which might be a big blow for them.

Their performance with the ball and in the field in all the three matches has been quite disappointing.

On the other hand, Ireland would be over the moon after this win and their cricket is definitely going to get better and better in the future now. Hats off to O’Brien for the entertainment he provided cricket fans.