Ireland stroll through to semi-finals

Ireland 265 for 9 (O'Brien 51, Porterfield 40, Morgan 40) beat Canada110 by 155 runs
Scorecard

Ireland joined Bangladesh in the semi-finals of the Plate Championship after hammering Canada by 155 runs at Chittagong. Ireland confirmed their position of being the most consistent of the ICC Associate Member countries with an emphatic victory over a Canada side yet to register a win in the tournament.

Ireland batted first after winning the toss and six of their top seven made solid contributions to build an imposing target. William Porterfield and Eion Morgan both reached 40, while Kevin O'Brien top-scored with 51. Despite a late flurry of wickets as the lower order tried in vain to up the run-rate, Ireland were able to bat out their full 50 overs to reach 265 for 9.

No team has yet chased a target of over 250 in the tournament, and Canada never looked capable of rising to the challenge. Six Irish bowlers picked up wickets as Canada were bowled out for 110 in 34.3 overs. Ireland must now beat Bangladesh on Friday to avoid Australia in the semi-final.

"We want to reach the Plate final," said Adrian Birrell, Ireland's coach. "We have played very well in our last two matches and we seem to be improving match by match. We have no specific plan for the Bangladesh match but if we play this well I think we have a chance of winning."

Franklyn Dennis, Canada's coach, is targeting a victory in the final group match. "We have not won any matches yet, but the players have learned a lot from the experience of playing against good sides," said Dennis. "I hope that they can use this experience to get a positive result against Uganda in our last match."