Ireland captain Trent Johnston (right) celebrates taking the wicket of Bangladesh's captain Habibul Bashar during their World Cup Cricket Super Eight match in Bridgetown, Barbados, yesterday. - Reuters

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados CMC

Ireland batted compe-tently, then bowled and fielded purposefully to complete a stunning 74-run victory over Bangladesh in their World Cup Super Eight match yesterday.

Ireland successfully defended a target of 244, when they dis-missed Bangladesh for 169 in 41.2 overs to earn a morale-boosting two points in the Super Eight stage.

Fittingly, Ireland captain Trent Johnston completed the rout, when he bowled Bangladesh captain Habibul Bashar for 32.

Bangladesh's batsmen badly let them down, and apart from Bashar, only Mohammad Ashraful with 35 and Tamim Iqbal with 29 showed any measure of re-sistance.

Kyle McCallan, Dave Langford-Smith, Johnston, and Boyd Rankin all collected two wickets apiece in a memorable victory for Ireland, an ICC associate side over the Test-playing Bangladeshis.

Ireland bravely chose to bat on another lively Kensington Oval pitch and posted a respectable 243 for seven from their allocation of 50 overs.

William Porterfield hit the top score of 85 off 136 balls which earned him the Man-of-the-Match award.

Porterfield shared 92 for the first wicket with Jeremy Bray, who scored 31, and Kevin O'Brien made 48 and Trent Johnston got 30 in a late flurry to beef up the Ireland total.

Mashrafe Mortaza was the most successful Bangladesh bowler with two wickets for 38 runs from his allotment of 10 overs.

Then Boyd Rankin got the breakthrough in the seventh over for Ireland, when opener Shahriar Nafees was caught behind for seven top-edging a hook.

Aftab Ahmed came and played a couple of exciting strokes before he got carried away, chased a wide ball from Andre Botha, and was caught behind for 12 in the 11th over.

Two overs later, Saqib-ul-Hasan was run out when a drive from Tamim ricocheted off the hand off bowler Botha into the stumps at the non-striker's end.

Mohammad Ashraful came out and immediately eased the tension with some bold strokes. He struck five fours - including a searing, classical cover drive off Botha and a six over mid-wicket off the same bowler.

Ashraful seemed to energise Tamim, whose timing was askew for most of his innings, but he played a couple authentic off-side strokes and hit a slower ball from Johnston to long-on for another before he was bowled next delivery.

The turning point came when Ashraful gave his hand away in the 22nd over, hooking a short, rising delivery from Rankin ñ brought back for a second spell from the Malcolm Marshall End ñ and was caught at deep fine leg for 35.

It might have been worse for Bangladesh had Langford-Smith held a skier, when Bashar also hooked a delivery from Rankin to deep fine leg in the 26th over.

But the wickets of Mushfiqur Rahim bowled by Kyle McCallan for 16, Mashrafe Mortaza caught and bowled by Langford-Smith for a duck, and Mohammad Rafique caught at mid wicket off the same bowler for two in the space of three overs ruined Bangladesh's chances and strengthened Ireland's grip which they never let go.