After six years of waiting, it was never going to be easy, but Ireland, at the 14th attempt, have finally defeated Scotland. The final margin was only four wickets as the excitement of beating the World Cup finalists proved too much for most of the Irish batsmen.

It was number eight, Paul Mooney, who had the coolest head and hit the winning boundary, only the fourth of the innings as Ireland limped to their victory target of 42 in the 21st over, 70 minutes into the third and final day.

It capped a tremendous comeback to the side for The Hills all-rounder, who was instrumental in putting Ireland in such a commanding position on Sunday night with a spell of four for 12 in the 11 overs as the Scots lost their last seven second innings wickets for 30.

But the team that dismissed Ireland for 141 in Malaysia to deny them a place in this year's World Cup finals and started the whitewash of defeats in this summer's Triple Crown started yesterday as if they were going to produce their most remarkable victory yet.

Resuming at five for one, Peter Davy was leg before to the fourth ball of the day and Barry Archer followed three balls later to put Wostershire's James Brinkley on a hat-trick. Angus Dunlop kept it out and along with Peter Gillespie restored some order to proceedings.

Dunlop, who became the first Irishman to score a century in an Ormeau international in the first innings, had hit three fours and was probably just too confident when he pulled Asim Butt straight to long leg. That made it 29 for four and it was 31 for five when Peter Shields, the debutant wicket-keeper, was trapped in front first ball.

Gordon Cooke joined Gillespie to seek out six vital runs in the next five overs, but when Gillespie was caught at second slip, the alarm bells were ringing again in the Irish dressing-room. Another wicket and the Scots would have been favourites, but Mooney produced the shot of the day to finally bury the Scottish hoodoo.

Afterwards, Dunlop was quick to remember Mike Hendrick, the national coach sacked just two weeks ago and who failed 11 times to beat the Scots.

"It's ironic that Mike's gone, we use five seamers and bowled Scotland out twice. Apart from Gordon Cooke, not one of the other bowlers was around when Mike Hendrick arrived."

Considering that Ryan Eagleton, Richard McDaid, Mark Patterson and even Owen Butler were not available, the legacy of Hendrick is set to live on through to Ireland's next attempt to qualify for the World Cup finals, in Toronto in July 2001.

The batting, especially with Stephen Smyth having ruled himself out of contention for a place in the next few years, looks more vulnerable, but with players such as Ed Joyce, Kyle McCallan, Jason Molins and, hopefully, Decker Curry, still to come in, the strength should not be judged on this match when Dunlop proved once and for all that Hendrick's legacy is not solely confined to the bowlers.

In the six seasons after his debut in 1990, Dunlop had played 39 matches, but missed 26. In the last four years, since Hendrick came on board, Dunlop has been dropped only once in 72 matches. He seems certain to be captain again next year.