ICC Intercontinental Cup

Ireland storm into final

Ireland secured their place in the final of the Intercontinental Cup with a draw against UAE in their semi-final at Windhoek

James Fitzgerald

Ireland 350 for 7 dec and 444 for 4 dec (Bray 190, O'Brien 176) drew with UAE 189 and 227 for 8 (Ali 59, Saleem 68, McCallan 3-32)
Scorecard
Jeremy Bray collects the Man-of-the-Match award for his innings of 78 and 190 © ICC

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Ireland will play Kenya in the final of the Intercontinental Cup after dominating their semi-final against the United Arab Emirates in Windhoek over the last three days. While Adrian Birrell's team didn't win the match outright, such is the bonus point system for this competition that Ireland were well ahead by the time stumps were drawn at the close of play on Tuesday.

"I am very happy with how it has gone the last few days," said Ireland's coach Birrell. "The guys have done exactly what I wanted them to do. Having won the toss we had to put the runs on the board in the first innings. We certainly did that. Our objective was to get into the final and that is what we have done," he said.

The UAE were set a ridiculous target of 606 to win when captain Trent Johnston finally declared shortly before lunch. It was never going to happen and, although Ireland got to within two wickets of victory, the Emirates batted stubbornly on a beautifully flat wicket to defy the Irish bowlers.

Kyle McCallan, with 3 for 32 and Trent Johnston who took 2-68 bowled particularly well in difficult conditions for Ireland. But the most exciting patch of a day's play short on thrills came early, when two batsmen had the chance of breaking Ivan Anderson's 32-year record for an individual score in an innings for Ireland. 169 overnight, Jeremy Bray looked certain to reach Anderson's 198, made in Toronto in 1973. But having got to 190 he played all around a straight delivery from Sockalingam: it hit his pad and he was out lbw.

Attention then shifted to Niall O'Brien who was not-out on 118 at the start of play. But he too fell, for 176, and Anderson's record remains intact. It was, however, a wonderful partnership between the two left-handers, worth 304, easily beating the previous highest partnership of 224. Ireland now take on Kenya on Thursday who had a "winning draw" against Bermuda in the other semi-final.