Bagai shines again as Canada reel in Ireland

Canada chased down the highest total posted in the ICC World Cricket League Division 1 as they powered their way to a six-wicket victory over hapless Ireland on Sunday.

The Canadians were set a big target of 309 for the win and it seemed that this might finally be a large enough total for the Irish to defend.

But an impressive 122 off 132 balls from Ashish Bagai, who earlier in the tournament scored an unbeaten 137 against Scotland, formed the backbone of the successful Canadian chase.

And his mid-innings partnership with captain John Davison (57 off 50 balls), as well as an unbeaten 60 off 40 balls from Qaiser Ali at the end is ultimately what won it for them.

Ireland have yet to play a match in the tournament without one of their players scoring a century but somehow they have only managed to win one of their four matches so far.

On Sunday it was 20-year-old Eoin Morgan who did the honours for the Irish.

Coming in at number three, Morgan and number five Kevin O'Brien, who has been in sensational form with the bat, put together a partnership of 152.

Morgan reached his 100 off exactly 100 balls and eventually fell to Henry Osinde, caught by Samad Abdool for 115.

O'Brien scored his third consecutive 50 (52 balls) before being stumped off Davison and captain Trent Johnson contributed a typically robust 44 off 27 balls.

It was a mammoth effort from the Irish batsmen but once again it was the Irish bowling that let them down.

The fact that several players were too ill to take to the field also didn't help matters.

An unwell Niall O'Brien was dismissed for a duck and then could not return as wicketkeeper and had to be replaced by Jeremy Bray and Johnson was also too sick to bowl.

That cannot take away from the Canadians' effort, however, as they made sure from the start that they were always up with the required run-rate.

With eight overs to go, Canada needed eight an over for the win and with Ali in fine form, this was easily accomplished.

In the end it came down to 19 runs needed off the final three overs and as the last few matches have shown, death bowling is certainly not Ireland's strength.

Andrew White had the unenviable task of bowling the final over, off which Canada needed only two runs and while things started off promisingly, it was going to need something miraculous to prevent the chasing team from prevailing.

They always looked in control and hit the winning runs from the third last ball of the innings. With this win, Canada now still have an outside chance of reaching Wednesday's final, if they manage to post a large enough victory over the Kenyans on Monday.

Ireland, on the other hand, have no chance of progressing and finish the event with a match against the Netherlands, also on Monday.