O'Brien plays innings of lifetime as Irish eyes smile

VC, Derek obviously doesn't watch Mitchell Johnson very often. Of course, Derek may be assuming the bowlers were putting it there deliberately - an ability Johnson does not possess. Johnno's doing well if he knows where the other end is.

Bush, Just a thought but perhaps...... The Irish win was precisely because they were 5/111. England, no doubt sniffing an easy win, drop the ball so to speak and start just putting it up there instead of putting it where it might do damage. O'Brien comes in, gets in, and then starts chancing his arm (like Botham in 1981). Runs come but England are still not worried. The trouble is they haven't yet understood the danger. O'Brien is away and so is the ball - into the crowd. By the time the penny drops even Ireland are thinking, "Hang on, we're a chance here" and go for it. A great win against the odds and "sport is the winner!" The "glorious uncertainty" strikes again. Given my paternal grandmother was Irish I'm claiming this win for the family. As for England, well, it couldn't happen to a nicer bunch. Actually, my father was born in Liverpool but given he arrived in Australia on his third birthday I can say he wasn't really English, he was just passing through.

Ryan. Not sure you can have a brilliant Irish win against a terrible one day side can you? Well, not unless the Irsih side was worse than terrible by a factor of brilliant anyway.

Pothale, I don't know why i bothered reading this far down the page but your comment is the greatest thing i have ever read. Champagne humour my friend. Gold coloured, rose-smelling champagne humour. Right out of Joyce Cary.

Pot hale - some intersting reading, but most impressive is your use of the word 'inveigled'. I have just expanded my vocabulary. Back to more topical matters, its sad that the thought of match fixing springs to mind. Are we watching le tour de world cup where suspicion comes first, facts come second.?

Nice one Brett.....I wonder how Eoin Morgan is feeling right now? :-D

to beat the poms at anything is great but for Ireland to do it now to be sure to be sure thats a pot of gold !!

England are just crap, Holland nearly beat them and the Irish simply completed the job. If England had been awersome up to now and then lost this match it would be something else, but they got destroyed by the Aussies, scraped past the Dutch, drew with India, in a performance that was above their norm, and proved how mediocre they are yesterday. Whenever there's a world cup the British media hypes up the English as one of the better teams, but the truth is whether it's rugby, football or cricket (The three biggest team sports in Britain) they're actually just shite, and when they prove their mediocrity, their presss are shocked and the rest of the world laughs, who then can blame Viscount if he's finally arrived at the stage where the only explanation he can offer is to cry CONSPIRACY, CONSPIRACY, suck it up mate , your team is just shiite.

I blame Kevin Pietersen for that defeat . 1-111 after 16 overs , Pietersen plays THE WORST REVERSE SWEEP in the history of cricket , gleefully taken by the Irish keeper. At the time , I didn't see the point of that shot . At the time , I thought England would make 350 At the time , I thought Peitersen would break Andrew Strauss' WC record set against India . I thought 150 was there for the taking - he was 59 off 49 balls when he got 'out' . At the time , I thought I would turn off the TV ( Which I did , just like the other 99.8% of this world cup that I haven't watched) England should still have defended the target , but what Pietersen did was unforgiveable .

This is just too funny.

I watched the replay this morning and didn't see anything to suggest that the result was anything but a deserved win by the Irish - maybe my eyes weren't open to more sinister possibilities. England's fielding and bowling in general was of a sub-par standard throughout the ODI series against Australia, and they didn't improve against either India or the Netherlands. The current ODI side is essentially the same group of players that took the Ashes series. Could it just be a case that they're in the middle of a very long hangover phase, or maybe they're just not a good limited overs unit? I know it's easy to be a victim to cynicism these days but come on people, can't we just believe just for a moment that a fairytale moment in sport transpired in last night's game. They do genuinely happen sometimes.

This game is more evidence on why the ICC should look to develop the likes of Ireland and the Netherlands. That's two major upsets in 2 World Cups from the Irish. Cacked myself laughing when I saw the news this morning before remebering the Ashes results.

Just spotted this in the Irish Times about the betting on the match prior to the start, after England had batted, and then when O'Brien took the wheel.: "Before the off Ireland were a general 25 to 1 to win on the exchanges (closer to 10 to 1 with traditional bookmakers) and serious underdogs in a market eventually worth over €19 million on the Betfair exchange. After England set a mammoth 327 target (€3.2m traded on Betfair at this stage), the odds for the boys in green naturally drifted to three-figures. When Ireland skipper William Porterfield was bowled by Jimmy Anderson in his very first ball, Ireland’s odds plummeted to a staggering 1,200 to 1. England were simply unbackable. Before Kevin O’Brien led the heroic “Blarney Army” response, Ireland were 399 to 1 when they trailed England by 221 runs. Betfair confirmed one lucky punter had a €25 nibble to return a €9,975 profit. By the tense final two overs the betting tide had well and truly turned – Ireland needed 12 off as many balls – and it was they who had become unbackable. O’Brien was run out and Ireland were 1 to 2, but when his replacement, Trent Johnson, immediately struck with a four from his first ball, the odds dropped to 1 to 11." Since the odds were in 4 figures before Ireland got going on the batting, does this point to a rigged game?

Maybe Ireland fixed the match by deciding to win it rather than lose it. You know how perverse and contrary us Irish can be. Tell us to do one thing, and we'll promptly do the other.....

Viscount,guys like Vaughn make a living if the england team is successful. The cynic in me says it is an attempt by the English media to deflect criticism from a woeful performance. When the WC is 50 overs it is silly to play 40 overs in your domestic comp. Just as silly as the australians playing a 45 overs split innings mutant. Illegal betting on matches will carry on regardless of a match being fixed. In fact the money wagered on this world cup will be in excess of 3 billion and some say 4 billion dollars. This is before any match is fixed. The bookies actually lose money when the favourite wins. So logic says this match was not fixed.

Are the Indian media trying to unsettle India's main threats by labelling them all match fixers? Aust, Sri Lanka now probably England will be smeared. Watch out Sth Africa you'll be next in their sites.

That's the fellow, Pots. No one knows quite what happened there. First they thought it was murder, then they said it wasn't, and then the last I heard was that they had returned to the original theory that it was fishy. If he was bumped off, it certainy puts into context the possible dangers facing cricketers who try to resist corruption.

Ha ha. Touché. Let's hope it's the former...

Completely agree with most of this, Bush, especially the last paragraph.

Michael Vaughan on Twitter: "If that had been Pakistan losing today what would we all be saying??" "The words I want to say are best kept away from twitter.."