Ireland made one change for this match. Captain Trent Johnston had suffered a recurrence of a shoulder injury and was replaced for this match by John Mooney. Kyle McCallan took over the captaincy.

This was Ireland's 16th match against the West Indies. Of these Ireland had won 3, West Indies 5 and 7 were drawn or abandoned. The last time the two teams met was two Matches in 2004 in Stormont when each team won one match. 7 of the victorious Irish team played in this match while 5 of that West Indies team played today.

Report by Richard Gillis in Irish Times on March 24th 2007.

Ireland ran into a carnival procession here yesterday as a pumped-up West Indies cruised to victory in front of 20,000 cheering locals. Missing their captain Trent Johnston through injury, the Irish lost for the first time in this World Cup. They were beaten by a better side playing well, no shame there. Their decision to make first use of a fast, bouncy Sabina Park wicket was a bold statement of intent in front of a vociferous near capacity crowd.

Trent Johnston's injured shoulder was not risked, so the team took to the field without their captain for the first time in the tournament. Vice-captain Kyle McCallan led the side in his absence. Before play began, a minutes silence was held for former ICU chairman Bob Kerr, who died this week while following Ireland's remarkable progress in Group D. It was the second such ceremony in as many games following the tribute to Bob Woolmer at the same ground on Wednesday. The locals, still filing in from the back streets of Kingston, observed it impeccably.

The Blarney Army was shorn of several battalions, but the tricolour was still flying at several points around the ground. The now familiar chants of "Ireland, Ireland" were subsumed by the exuberance of the Jamaicans who were hosting their team for possibly the last time in the tournament, depending on who makes it back to Sabina Park for the semi-finals.

The first over from Jerome Taylor was hostile, bowling fast and full, moving the ball into William Porterfield's pads. This was the perfect line given Ireland's left-handed top five. Porterfield, a former MCC Young Cricketer, seemed stunned by the pace and went caught at slip off Daren Powell's second ball. The Jamaican crowd had come in large numbers and sat back expecting a rout, led by local boys Taylor and Powell. But, excited by the pace of the pitch, the quickies bowled too short, the trampoline bounce of the wicket illustrated by a top edged six by Morgan that went over the wicket keeper's head off Taylor.

There followed a stand of 58 off 84 balls between Jeremy Bray and Eoin Morgan which stabilised the innings after the shock of the early wicket. But the theme of the innings was of lost opportunities. Seven of the Ireland batsmen reached double figures, none went on to reach 50. At 70-2 Ireland had weathered the early pace and looked set to build a commanding total, one that might test the hosts. It was a much-needed partnership but ended prematurely. The pressure of making a score on such a perfect batting wicket weighed heavily and prompted a rash decision by Morgan. After a 14-ball period of inaction, he charged down to Powell and top edged a skier. Keeper Denesh Ramdin beat four of his team-mates to the catch running 20 yards back toward the North Stand. Kevin O'Brien promised to offer support to Botha, by now established. But against the off spin of Gayle and Samuels, the middle of the order was becalmed. A straight six by Botha was followed by a slog sweep that caught the top edge. Captain Kyle McCallan set himself the task of squeezing maximum value from the tail. He set up shop with Andrew White, the two would share an office in September when White joins McCallan in the PE Department at Grosvenor Grammar School in East Belfast. But for now it was the West Indians who were handing out the lessons. White reached 18, before trying a cheeky sweep of the fast medium bowling of Dwayne Bravo and was bowled behind his legs. This brought John Mooney to the wicket. The all-rounder from the North County club was playing his first game of the tournament, as a replacement for Johnston. He walked into a cauldron. Bravo, the great new hope of West Indian cricket had his tail up, a baying crowd behind him. Running away from the George Headley Stand, he bowled a brute of a first ball. Short and fast it flew at chest height, flicking Mooney's glove before he had time to move his hands out of the way. The ball, and the moment, would have accounted for many a veteran player. David Langford-Smith survived an lbw shout on the hat-trick ball before he and McCallan scampered the final few runs.

Due to a rain break that occurred at 45.2 overs, the Ireland innings ended after 48 overs. In view of the rain interruption, and the shortening of the innings, the West Indian target was set, under the Duckworth/Lewis rules, at 190.

The momentum of the West Indian innings was provided by Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who began by hitting four consecutive boundaries off one Boyd Rankin over. A century partnership between himself and Sarwan established the momentum of the innings and Chanderpaul and Samuels comfortably saw them home with almost 10 overs to spare. Chanderpaul won the Man-of-the-Match award.

After the emotional roller coaster of the past two weeks, the Irish team will be relieved to start afresh in Guyana before readying themselves for another huge game, against England in Georgetown.

Report of Ian Callender in Daily Mail March 24th 2007

Ireland got a hint of what they can expect when the Super Eight stage of the World Cup finals get under way next week as they suffered defeat for the first time in the tournament. West Indies took the two points into the second stage with a performance which finally showed up the difference between Ireland and a Test nation.

Victory by eight wickets was all the home fans could have asked for as Shivnarine Chanderpaul blitzed his way to a glorious, undefeated 101. The Ireland bowlers, who had performed so heroically against Zimbabwe and Pakistan in the first two group games, kept them in the middle for more than 38 overs but had to admit second-best. Although Kyle McCallan, standing in as captain due to the injury to Trent Johnston, won Ireland's second successive toss, he was forced to bat on a perfect batting track. Gone was the grass and moisture which was a feature of the Sabina pitch that Saturday and with it disappeared the hopes of another shock Ireland victory.

Rain just before the end of the first innings restricted Ireland to 48 overs and a Duckworth/Lewis calculation set West Indies a target of 190, even more than the Irish total. It proved no problem to the hosts and although David Langford-Smiths's slower ball accounted for Chris Gayle in the fifth over, Chanderpaul and an out-of-touch Sarwan, who scored 36 off 71 deliveries, put on 119 for the second wicket before McCallan tempted the latter to hit out once too often and he was caught at deep mid-wicket. Marlon Samuels won the match with the seventh six of the innings.

Ireland could not afford to lose early wickets but although William Porterfield, for the second time in three matches, went early, caught at slip, Jeremy Bray and Eoin Morgan added 58 for the second wicket and stayed together until the 16th over. Bray was lethal on anything short and wide while Morgan, as has been his wont in the tournament, was content to rotate the strike with singles. The one exception was a pull, straight over his head, which landed just the other side of the boundary for six. His attempt to repeat the stroke some 11 overs later was to be his last but only because of the sensational catch by wicketkeeper Ramdin. He ran back fully 50 yards to take the ball without diving.

Niall O'Brien made a confident start and struck two boundaries but, just 19 balls into his innings, he followed an away swinger and gave Ramdin another catch. Bray, meanwhile, was continuing to cause all the problems for the hosts and, significantly, Lara used only three bowlers when he was in the middle, pulling out all the stops to remove the Ireland century-maker against Zimbabwe last week. The captain's patience was rewarded in Jerome Taylor's eighth over and Bray, after 72 balls and seven boundaries, drove straight to mid-off. His head went back in disbelief before returning to the pavilion. It left Ireland 82-4 after 22 overs.

With two new batsmen, it was a case of digging deep to avoid the loss of any more wickets and to that end Andre Botha and Kevin O'Brien succeeded. It hardly made very entertaining viewing and run-scoring was made extra difficult by the accuracy of Chris Gayle. There was not much turn for Gayle but with the batsmen reluctant to leave the crease to take him on, he bowled a remarkable 10 over spell which yielded only 23 runs, all of them singles. Just for good measure he also frustrated both batsmen into mistakes, costing them wickets. First O'Brien, after facing 46 balls for just 17 runs, pulled to deep mid-wicket and then Botha, who hit a lovely straight six off Bravo, got a top edge off an attempted hook and Ramdin held a catch

Andrew White and McCallan found it just as difficult as their predecessors and a run of 20 singles was interrupted by a solitary boundary to fine leg by the acting captain. The loss of two wickets in successive balls, White missing a reverse paddle and Mooney good enough to get an edge to a brute of a lifter from Bravo, could not have been timed worse because the rain arrived shortly afterwards holding up play for 70 minutes.

On the resumption Ireland had only 16 balls left to complete their innings and with the help of 12 off the last over they were able to give the bowlers something to aim at. They may not have won the match but, unlike Pakistan and almost certainly India, they will be still in the Caribbean this time next week. The Man-of-the-Match award went, not surprisingly, to Shivnarine Chanderpaul.

Derek Scott, Ian Callender and Richard Gillis