Limerick: 1-16 P O'Grady 0-5, (three frees); B Foley 0-4, (one sideline); J Butler 1-1; O Moran, B Begley 0-3 each.

Cork: 1-15 B Deane 0-4 (three frees); A Browne 0-3; M Landers, S McGrath, B O'Connor 0-2 each; P Ryan, J O'Connor, D O'Sullivan 0-1 each.

Referee: P Horan (Offaly)

Attendance 37,792

Cork, masters of the big surprise, are no longer Guinness Munster hurling champions. The title evaporated even more sensationally than their All-Ireland had last August against Offaly.

A resurgent Limerick, all youthful buzz and earnest endeavour, raided the once impregnable Pairc Ui Chaoimh for a second time in five years and won an exhilarating first-round contest by the slimmest of margins.

The young team had to win the match a couple of times. Nervy finishing meant a failure to give full expression to their first-half supremacy.

The second half would be different. Derek Barrett, switched to wing back in place of the missing Sean O hAilpin, returned to centrefield and with the hardworking Mark Landers, got some sort of momentum going.

So, when Cork hunted Limerick down in the second half - Alan Browne's 39thminute solo-and-strike goal the key moment - and hit the front for the first time with 10 minutes remaining, there was hardly a soul in the unexpectedly big crowd of 37,792 who couldn't read the script.

Yet Limerick battled back and, in an almost unbearably tense closing phase, they outscored the champions by three points to one. Cork were unable to find the extra gear necessary to pull away and in the 67th minute Limerick captain Barry Foley drifted over a sideline cut to put his team in front.

Shortly afterwards the crowd buzzed at the disclosure that there would be no injury-time (assumed to be worth a couple of extra minutes to Cork) and the countdown began for real. Where do you start to convey the essentials of such an afternoon?

Was it Cork being complacent again? They certainly played poorly enough for long stretches but there was more to it than merely the torpor of the champions.

Crazy as it must seem to anyone, who saw their abject humiliation by Clare in the league last month, Limerick believed in themselves. They didn't fold under pressure and settle for the substantial moral victory on offer.

And there was more. They had the stomach to accept setbacks and come again.

Tactically, they were astute. Manager Eamonn Cregan remembered how Cork had comfortably absorbed Limerick's best efforts a year ago before pulling away to win well. They had posed too predictable a challenge.

Yesterday was different. Cregan shuffled his attacking deck continuously. No Cork defender had the opportunity to get comfortable on his man. The forwards moved around disrupting their markers and bombarding Cork with a constantly released energy.

The champions had their alibis. Brian Corcoran, fulcrum of the team that won the All-Ireland two years ago, was only recovered from injury and, although he shored things up when coming on for the second half, his absence from the starting line-up was a blow.

O hAilpin's car accident, coming only days before the match, was further, grave disruption. But the point was that no one foresaw these problems as in any way terminal to Cork's chances.

The overall effort was praised but Limerick's full forwards were central to the drama. Full forward Brian Begley gave a gigantic display on Diarmuid O'Sullivan. The achievement was enhanced by O'Sullivan's performance. This was no off-day.

During the intense tussles between the two, Cork's full back won his share, including a super catch and clearance from a ball dropped in perilously by Mike O'Brien in the 16th minute.

And, in one of the moments of the season, two minutes into the second half, O'Sullivan raged out of his square after the ball and lofted a stunning point from nearly 100 metres.

Ollie Moran at centre forward made light of his conversion from defensive pivot and, like Begley, hit three points. All around the attack, Limerick crackled with aggressive intent.

The half-time lead of 1-10 to 0-7 was backed up with 10 wides. The goal came when James Butler switched corners in the 12th minute, burned off John Browne before unleashing a fierce shot, which rebounded back out from the highly-strung netting.

Cork's attack was terribly disappointing. Sean McGrath, for a while, and the ever-dependable Alan Browne (another championship goal under his belt) showed in patches but Limerick's defence played their hearts out - from Timmy Houlihan, so calm in goal, to the tireless Mark Foley.

Foley was returning to the ground where he made such an auspicious debut five years ago and he played it again - earning the TV Man of the Match award as he had back then.