 Niall O'Brien celebrates after scoring his century |
Ireland beat Namibia by a convincing nine-wicket margin to win the Intercontinental Cup for the third successive time in Port Elizabeth. Chasing 201 to win, Ireland began the fourth day's play on 134-1 and coasted to victory with Niall O'Brien ending on 119 not out and Alex Cusack 39 not out. O'Brien accumulated his total off 165 balls with 15 fours and two sixes. Namibia had made 241-9 in their first innings, Ireland replied with 195 all out and then Namibia were 145 all out. Ireland produced a sterling performance against perhaps the most dangerous bowling attack in the competition to score 200 against Namibia for the first time in any Intercontinental Cup innings in their second time at the wicket. Cusack was named man of the match. Afterwards skipper William Porterfield said he was "absolutely delighted". "To come here to Africa and win all three games to take the title for a third time is a great achievement and we are over the moon," said the Ireland captain.  The Ireland squad celebrate after their victory on Sunday |
"It seems a long time ago that we played our first game in the competition against Bermuda. "It has been a long haul with lots of ups and downs but we have come through in the end. "We were certainly under pressure in this match. Namibia got 250 after we had them under the kosh early and then being 37-5 we did well to get within 50 or so of their total. "We were pretty pleased on that front and then we knew we'd have to come out hard with ball in the second innings and we did that. "All credit to the bowlers to keep the target to 200 and then we went out and did the job we should have done in the first innings with the bat. "We weren't surprised that Namibia were so good. We saw it a month ago in Windhoek and we were fortunate to come through that with an eight-run victory so all credit to them. "I made my debut against them two years ago and the steps forward they have made in those two years is remarkable and they now have a side worthy of playing in this competition."
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