"I hope they don't put him in jail," said a Jamaican lady volunteer as she watched a rummed-up Irish supporter being hauled out of the ground by police for running onto the pitch. "Our jails aren't very nice places."
The interloper ran on during the rain break that interrupted Ireland's innings. It could be an expensive holiday add-on. No statement had been made as to his fate last night, but the tariff for running on the playing surface in these parts is up to 100,000 dollars or 30 days in jail. His defence was that he ran on because he thought Ireland had won. May need a decent lawyer.
Over in the players' dressing-room, a more sober but no-less-emotional scene was unfolding. As the run chase hotted up on a muggy Saturday afternoon in Jamaica, the world was treated to a series of close-ups of Roy Torrens, the Ireland team manager sitting on the players' balcony. The cameras picked out Torrens several times going through a range of emotions not seen this side of Dublin's Gaiety theatre.
Meanwhile coach Adrian Birrell, like an expectant father, was pacing the corridors that run behind the North Stand.
"I'm a terrible watcher of cricket matches, always have been, I get so nervous," said Birrell later at the press conference.
"I don't want it to affect the players so I go outside. It's how I am, I don't try to fight it."
Meanwhile the team captain, Trent Johnston, sat at the top table, his injured shoulder strapped up.
"I didn't do too well at English in school, so I'm struggling to come up with a word," he said when asked to describe how he felt about the historic match he had just played.
"We wanted to come out and play well to show that there is some good cricket played back home in Ireland," said Johnston.
"The last two games have finally put Kenya to bed, which is a big issue for us," he said, referring to the pre-World Cup losses in the World Cricket League in Nairobi.
Niall O'Brien admitted his man-of-the-match display was the reward for a bout of heavy practice after going through a rough time with the bat.
"Pakistan bowled really well and we just needed a bit of luck early on in our innings. Once the hardness was off the ball it got a little easier."
"It's been a tough couple of months for me with the bat but today the technique and the skills were back and it was good to get some runs. The hard work has paid off."
The wicketkeeper was also quick to praise the vocal support of the side's travelling fans. "It's like having a 12th man out there."
World cup shocks
1979:Sri Lanka, still three years from test status, beat India by 47 runs at Old Trafford.
1983:Zimbabwe beat Australia by 13 runs at Trent Bridge. England's present coach, Duncan Fletcher, makes 69 not out in Zimbabwe's 239 for 6 before taking 4 for 42.
1983:The all-conquering West Indies lose to India, the 66-1 pre-tournament outsiders, in the final. West Indies collapse from 50 for 1 chasing 183.
1992:Zimbabwe stun England. Chicken farmer Eddo Brandes takes 4 for 21 as Zimbabwe, defending 134, win by nine runs.
1996:Kenya thrash West Indies by 73 runs in Pune. Off-spinner Maurice Odumbe, later banned for contacts with bookmakers, takes three wickets
1999:Bangladesh beat Pakistan in Northampton in a game that has since been the subject of match-fixing speculation. Bangladesh score 223 and bowl out Pakistan for 161 and a 61-run victory.
2003:Bangladesh lose to Canada by 60 runs in Durban, South Africa.
2003:Sri Lanka, the 1996 world champions, go down by 53 runs to Kenya in Nairobi.
