Kyle McCallan and Matt Dwyer turned in impressive spells of spin bowling yesterday for Ireland to defeat Italy and notch their second win of the European championship in Scotland.
As Holland were beating the England ECB XI to retain their title with a game to spare, Ireland set up yet another play-off for third place with Scotland tomorrow, easing to a six-wicket victory at Cambusdoon in Ayr.
McCallan took the man-of-the-match award with 5 for 23 but it was veteran left-armer Dwyer who caught the connoisseur's eye as Italy were dismissed for 74.
Like a fine cheese, 41-year-old Dwyer gets more potent with age and the Italians had no stomach to take him on.
Italy, without Joe Scuderi, the injured Lancashire all-rounder, had lost Hemantha Jayasena, bowled by Paul Mooney, before Dwyer struck with two wickets in his first two overs, including that of Australian-based Peter di Venuto.
Seeing the ball turning, McCallan brought himself on to remove another Italian import, Andrea Corbellari, but only after the South African had launched a massive six over mid-wicket.
McCallan struck again when Gordon Cooke dived to his right to hold a chance at short midwicket and with his batsmen hopelessly at sea, Italian supremo Simone Gambini suggested an amendment to the laws of cricket.
"It should be like golf," he said. "If one of our batsmen loses his wicket, he must be given five minutes to find it - blindfolded of course." Gambini, who has other interesting ideas like one bounce over the ropes counting as five runs, was settling for damage limitation by the time Dwyer had completed his 10-over spell of 3 for 10 and Andrew White had claimed the final wicket in the 37th over.
"A seven wicket defeat will be respectable" Gambini suggested, as brothers Dominic and Gus Joyce walked out to open for Ireland. Gus Joyce's first international innings was ended by a delivery that stayed wickedly low and Gambini got one more than he had hoped for when Dominic Joyce, Ryan Haire and McCallan all followed him back to the pavilion.
If Ireland had made a meal of their target, at least Angus Dunlop's second boundary finished it off before lunch, which proved another victory of sorts - three potato dishes to one of pasta.
Talk after the game all centred on the poor state of the pitch, with wicketkeeper Allan Rutherford adamant that Ireland would have struggled to make 150 batting second.
At least the odd low bounce only endangered Irish wickets and ankle bones, back in Glasgow the Scots were embarrassed to find their match against Denmark abandoned after 13 deliveries at Pitwood.
The first ball of the morning pitched on a length and flew over batsman and wicketkeeper for four byes and when Scotland opener, Bruce Patterson, was hit on the arm in the third over of the morning, umpire Ken Shuttleworth let the players off.
Ireland had already benefited from the dangerous Pitwood pitch - it was a delivery there on Monday that cracked Scuderi's ribs and put Italy's best player out of the tournament. Scotland and Denmark hope to replay at Uddingston today.
