Cricket:A virtuoso display of batting from Richie Berrington fired Scotland to their highest one-day international total as they completed a remarkable comeback to beat Ireland in Edinburgh.
Berrington struck six sixes off 23 balls as his 56 rejuvenated the fightback and Josh Davey sealed the win with a boundary as Scotland reached 323 for five with nine balls to spare.
Ireland looked near-certain winners after Paul Stirling hit his third century in four one-day internationals to send them on their way to a 320 for eight total.
The 20-year-old took just 83 balls to reach his century before being caught out on 113 after unleashing some huge strikes as Ireland belatedly got the summer tri-series under way.
Scotland captain Gordon Drummond had elected to field but the hosts had no answer to Stirling and his top-order colleagues as Ireland, whose opening match against Sri Lanka had been rained off, threatened to run away with the contest in the opening half of their innings.
However, Preston Mommsen (three for 26) and Davey (three for 41) kept the total down and opening batsmen Kyle Coetzer (89) and Fraser Watts (54) gave Scotland a fighting chance.
The Scots seemed to have lost the initiative but Berrington and Davey (48) revived their chances before the latter sealed a memorable victory — Scotland’s first in six one-day games against Ireland.
Ireland skipper William Porterfield dismissed suggestions his team had been complacent but admitted they should have seen the game out.
“We got a score that was defendable, although it wasn’t as strong as we would have liked going into the last 10 overs,” he said. “Any time you get over 300 it’s a pretty good total, but we didn’t execute it well.
“You have to give credit to the way Scotland played but I thought we were a wee bit sloppy in the field, as we have been before this summer. We had an intense fielding session on Sunday and I don’t know why it didn’t click today.”