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Curtis Campher crushes 72 from just 32 balls to stun Scotland… as Ireland beat their rivals by six wickets to keep their World Cup hopes alive
- Michael Jones hit 86 from 55 balls to help Scotland to 176-5 in their innings
- Ireland appeared to be heading for defeat as they fell back to 61-4 . in response
- However, Curtis Campher then hit a stunning 72 to get Ireland across the line
- Ireland and Scotland have now both won one of their first two matches
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Curtis Campher produced a stunning display of power-hitting to keep Ireland’s World Cup hopes alive as they defeated Scotland by six wickets on Wednesday.
Scotland, just after beating the West Indies on Monday, won the toss and chose to bat, but had a rocky start when George Munsey was sacked by Mark Adair in the second over.
Scotland, however, recovered from this early setback, with Matthew Cross and Richard Berrington intervening with useful contributions of 28 and 37 respectively before they both settled on Campher.
Curtis Campher hit 72 from 32 balls to lead Ireland to a famous win against Scotland
Campher was ably supported by George Dockrell (R) who hit an unbeaten 39 from 27 balls
However, it was opener Michael Jones who delivered the standout batting performance when he hit 86 from 55 balls, including a huge six that hit the roof of the stands, despite taking eight balls to get off the goal.
When he was sacked in the penultimate over, Scotland already had 170 on the board, and despite a quiet last six balls, they finished on a challenging total of 176-5.
Ireland needed nearly nine runs per over and got off to a stuttering start to their response, and when openers Andrew Balbirnie and Paul Stirling fell into consecutive overs, they were well behind the run rate at 29-2.
Lorcan Tucker and Harry Tector started rebuilding, but Ireland was hit again with a double blow as they lost their wickets within five balls of each other just before the mid-innings.
Michael Jones hit 86 from 55 balls to give Scotland a strong position halfway through
This put George Dockrell and Campher at 61-4 with the required run rate of 11 runs per over.
Campher immediately started to turn the game in his favor with some clean strikes all over the ground, while Dockrell on the other side played a steady hand.
On their way to the last five overs, Ireland needed 52 overs to win, but Campher continued to pick up the gaps in the field as he found the boundary at regular intervals.
Scotland took early wickets and looked on course for the win midway through the Irish innings
However, Campher turned the game upside down with some remarkable power hitting late in the day
Campher put forth his half-century in the early 18th century and kept his foot on the accelerator as he reached three consecutive frontiers to get Ireland across the line with a surplus left.
He finished in a remarkable 72 from just 32 balls, while Dockrell finished at 39 from 27 balls, as the pair shared an unbroken partnership of 119.
Ireland lost their opening game of the competition to Zimbabwe but are now level with Scotland on two points after two games, keeping the group tantalizingly balanced.