Ireland beat Scots to open World Cup campaign with victory

AN attacking century from William Porterfield helped Ireland coast to a seven-wicket win over Scotland in their opening match of the World Cup qualifying tournament today.

Chasing 233 for victory after Neil McCallum’s career-best 121, captain Porterfield needed just 87 balls to reach his ton and was given excellent support from Eoin Morgan (61) as Ireland cruised home in just 37.4 overs.

The Irish, who came into the tournament as one of the favourites, made a flying start with Gary Wilson and Porterfield racing to 43 in the eighth over before the former saw his stumps uprooted by Calum MacLeod (one for 30) for 14.

But the skipper continued to bat aggressively, slamming Craig Wright (one for 49) for four boundaries in his first over before raising his 50 in just 35 balls as he threatened to take the game away from the Scots. Morgan also joined in the fun, helping to bring up the 100 stand in just 88 balls before crossing the 50 mark himself.

But he perished trying to reverse sweep Ryan Watson (one for 45) and was bowled, handing Scotland their second wicket with the score on 174.

Again, the loss of another partner did not perturb Porterfield as he notched his third ODI hundred when he drove Scotland captain Watson through the covers for four.

He was out not long after – bowled by Wright for 101, which included 12 fours and three sixes – but Niall O’Brien (25) and Andre Botha (15) led the Irish home with 12.2 overs to spare.

Earlier, McCallum’s 121 helped Scotland recover from 24 for four to post 232 for seven.

Boyd Rankin (two for 27) struck with his first delivery when he bowled Gavin Hamilton for one.

Rankin then had skipper Watson (seven) edging a wide ball to Trent Johnston at first slip – and Navdeep Poonia (two) and Colin Smith (nought) fell trying to attack Peter Connell (two for 51) but instead both edged to Botha at second slip.

Kyle Coetzer (29) helped McCallum add 44, before being caught at mid-wicket off Kevin O’Brien.

McCallum was dropped on 41 by Botha at slip but passed his 50 in the company of Wright (19) who was caught by Wilson while Moneeb Iqbal (six) was next to go, run out by Johnston fielding at cover. McCallum brought up his second one-day century off 129 balls – his previous one against the same opponents – before opening up in an unbroken stand of 56 in 5.1 overs with Jan Stander.