Odoyo thought it was "lost cause"

Kenya captain Thomas Odoyo admitted he thought Friday's match against Ireland was a "lost cause" as they were left needing more than 50 runs for the final wicket.

But together with Hiren Varaiya, man of the match Odoyo lifted Kenya over the line as they put on 55 for the 10th wicket to reach 285.

Odoyo finished unbeaten on 61 while Varaiya made five.

"To be honest I was not that confident that we could do it," Odoyo said.

"It was a bit of a lost cause. But when the young man (Varaiya) came in he just told me to have faith in him and so I had faith in him that we could hit our way out.

"All credit must go to him. You need a partner to be able to do something like this and he played very well. I am very excited. I have won matches for Kenya before but this is one of the best. It's very special."

Barring a very unlikely set of results, the unbeaten Kenyans will now almost certainly enjoy a safe passage through to the final, which would mean qualification for the inaugural ICC Twenty20 World Championships in South Africa later this year.

But that had looked in doubt when Ireland recovered from 57 for three to post a total of 284.

"I thought they would get around 230," Odoyo added.

"That would have been good but 280 was very competitive - against any side.

We knew Ireland would be tough opposition. We played them in Namibia and they beat us there and we knew that their strength is their batting.

"When you score 284 all you have to do it field well. And they did field well until the last few overs but there was very little they could do when the ball was going over their heads."

It was a second close defeat for Ireland, who will re-group on Saturday before playing Canada on Sunday, knowing they cannot progress.

"We batted really well but our death bowling has been a worry for a while now and it's been our downfall now in two matches," said coach Adrian Birrell.

"You have to put the captain in Kevin O'Brien's shoes. He had the winning runs hit off the final over which he bowled against Scotland so the captain went to someone else who doesn't have that baggage but he just didn't get it up there.

"I'm not upset at all with the way we played but once again we were on the wrong side of a very cruel result. All credit to Odoyo though. He played a brilliant innings and won it for them right at the end.

"It's never over till it's over and I knew we had to get that last wicket but it just didn't happen for us.

"It hurts because we're out of the contest now. I'm proud of the guys though. They fought well. We have been on the wrong side of two very close games and we have two more games to go but it's going to be very difficult getting up for those because we know we're out of the tournament."