CRICKET/Intercontinental Cup final:Ireland play Canada today in the final of the Intercontinental Cup at Leicestershire's Grace Road ground. It is the first time the team has played a four-day game since the semi-final of the competition, against UAE in Abu Dhabi, way back in early February.

That match marked a turnaround in Ireland's season and for this reason was arguably their most significant game of the year.

It is easy to forget in these still heady times for Ireland cricket, that they had a shocking start to the year. The World Cricket League in Nairobi was a disaster. The team lost four out of five games to other Associate-level nations, in a competition they had expected to win. They headed to Abu Dhabi needing a result to salvage something from their pre-World Cup campaign. They got it.

Eoin Morgan, who has been released to play by Middlesex for this week's match, scored 209 not out, breaking the record for highest individual score for Ireland in the process. Andre Botha scored 157 in a partnership of 360 with Morgan. Botha is not in Leicester due to his finger injury sustained during the Friends Provident match in Somerset.

Boyd Rankin, another absentee this week, turned potential into performance with four for 56 in the second innings to bowl out UAE for 118 in the second innings. Skipper Trent Johnston took six wickets in the match.

Immediately following the game, the squad came home to Ireland for a two-week hiatus before heading to the Caribbean. The success in Abu Dhabi turned the season around. There were good news stories to tell and the team moved to Trinidad and then Jamaica with confidence. We know the rest.

Today's game will be an opportunity to regroup from a bruising few weeks of Friends Provident games. Their opponents should not be underestimated. Canada have lost some key players and are in transition following a World Cup that saw them beaten comprehensively in their three group stage games against England, New Zealand and Kenya in St Lucia.

The last time they played Ireland, at the World Cricket League in January, Canada chased down 308 to win a tight game in the last over. Their two best players, Ashish Bagal and John Davison, inflicted the damage that day and remain a potent threat to Ireland's ambitions this week. Davison held the record for the fastest century at a World Cup, one he relinquished to Matthew Hayden this year.

For the 25-year-old Bagal, this week will be his first real test as captain, as he has taken over the role from Davison. The team's coach, former Notts bowler Andy Pick, has resigned but volunteered to help out this week before a replacement, possibly Davison, is hired.

Bagal won the player of the tournament at the ICC World Cricket League scoring two centuries and one 50 at an average of 86.25, including 137 not out against Scotland. And despite the loss of Anderson Cummings - the former West Indian bowler has retired - the Canada opening attack of Umar Bhatti and Henry Osinde will be a handful for Ireland's top order.

Canada are a team with much to play for. They are to host several international matches over the summer most notably Pakistan, West Indies and World Cup finalists Sri Lanka in a Twenty20 tournament scheduled for late August. It won't be the last big event they play: the large Asian population in the country makes it an ideal starting point if cricket is to ever make inroads into North America.

For Ireland, this match represents a chance to get back into the habit of winning. They are, by their own admission, tired and finding the post World Cup comedown a struggle. However, a second successive win in this competition - they beat Kenya in the 2005 final - would be a real achievement. It would be fitting if the competition kick-started the second part of Ireland's season as there are parallels with earlier in the year.

They went into a semi-final in Abu Dhabi with a similar recent record. And look what happened.