Band of Brothers stumps the world

When Ireland captain Trent Johnston lofted the winning six into the bleachers, the entire team bolted from under the new stand at Sabina Park.

It was the end of not one match but two that had whittled down to fraught endings of who blinks first, a couple of wickets, a handful of runs. The first was Zimbabwe. This time, though, it was Pakistan. Ireland had felled one of the sport's Redwoods in arguably the biggest upset the cricket World Cup has seen.

No longer the gutsy, glorious losers, Ireland took a step up and into history. They had made the ascent of their Everest more manageable by bowling out the opposition for 132 runs on Saturday, and then proceeded to scale it as the cricket world watched on in disbelief.

The week had not been all unrestrained celebration, and there was a moment early in the match against Zimbabwe when a vulture glided down from the Blue Mountains overlooking Kingston and soared over the ground. In Irish minds then, fears were there were going to be some bones to pick over. Ireland were 89 for 5 against the group's other "weak" team.

That downbeat ending wasn't the journey this team had sought. It didn't represent the hopes of the hard core of fans who travelled each match day in convoys of buses and cabs into the rundown side of town.

Beginning in morning darkness from their base on the Montego Bay side of the island, the ritual has been to snake over the hills in the centre of the island, cut through the rain forest, bisect the slums of Spanish Town and drive to the suburbs of Kingston, a city the locals affectionately call Baghdad.

But the Irish team dared to dream and the supporters bought into some great, unthinkable thoughts that a side of World Cup debutants could sup soup with cricket royalty and wrangle their way into the second phase of this competition.

After next Friday's final pool match against the West Indies, Ireland will probably meet England in Guyana in the first match of the Super Eights phase. Not a soul saw this coming.

At the forefront, Railway Union's Niall and Kevin O'Brien reluctantly accepted the heaped praise. The brothers, part of a clutch of five O'Briens who were all nurtured in the Sandymount ground along side their international hockey-playing sister, Ciara, held Ireland's middle order together in the midst of the Pakistani bowlers' assault, Niall earning man of the match for his courageous 72 runs.

For times during the bombardment the two met in the middle of the wicket, their only place of relative tranquillity as an increasingly anxious Mohammad Sami made it his business to run up the wicket after a delivery to deliver a few choice words in open demonstrations of hostility.

"It was just a matter of cricket for me," said Niall. "Verbals? There were no verbals. I'm a very quiet individual," he added, tongue firmly in cheek. "Conditions suited the bowlers and we had to dig deep. Beating Pakistan in the World Cup is brilliant, but when you are out there it's just bat and ball."

It was hoped that Ireland would at least ask a few questions of Pakistan. Instead, they set the former world champions a stiff examination and ultimately brought this competition to life. Scotland and Bermuda had been humiliated in their opening games, which again threw the spotlight on the perceived uselessness of the minnows. But on the lush Kingston wicket, Ireland picked two Pakistani scalps for 15 runs, then five for 58. It continued. Six for 72. Seven for 103 to increasingly frequent versions of Ireland's Call, The Field's of Athenry and "England, Are You Watching?".

At that point Pakistan were certainly more spliff than biff, and when lower order batsman Rao Iftilkhar made the lonely walk from the locker-room to the crease to try to repair some of the damage his more illustrious front-end hitters had left him with, he had the look of a child called to the front of the class for a public scolding.

All out, and the brothers, watched by their former international father, Brendan, then stepped up.

"It can't get better than this," said Kevin. "I did the easy job. Niall did the hard work. It's the best I've ever seen him bat. The whole world was watching. I'm only a nipper in the game. I've only 10 caps and I'll listen to anything anyone has to say. But today was incredible and we deserved it."