CRICKET:IRELAND TAKE on their great rivals Scotland for the European Championship title tomorrow after seeing off a plucky Italy side by four wickets at Malahide yesterday.

The Azzurri have been the surprise package of the tournament and the confidence garnered from their opening-day shock win over the Netherlands was obvious in their play yesterday.

Ireland lost the same number of wickets as their opponents in chasing down their total of 158, with Paul Stirling calming nerves and boosting his confidence with a match-winning half-century.

The 17-year-old had failed to get past five against Norway and Denmark and had looked far from the confident player who hit Monty Panesar for six on his way to 70 in Ireland's Friends Provident Trophy game away to Northants earlier in the summer.

Andrew Poynter also impressed, the Clontarf player making 20 in a fifth-wicket partnership of 60 with Stirling after Ireland had been reduced to 75 for four at the end of the 25th over.

Former Pembroke all-rounder Andy Northcote did the damage at the top of the Irish order, winkling out skipper William Porterfield (21) and Gary Wilson (32) in consecutive overs of off-spin. Peter Petricola also removed Alex Cusack for seven and Reinhardt Strydom for a duck.

With four wickets down and 84 runs still required there was plenty of pressure on Stirling and Poynter to make a vital contribution. They worked the ball around and ran well between the wickets, Stirling lofting a few over the top when the bowlers strayed.

With the score on 135, Gayashan De Silvan got through Poynter's defences, while Alessandro Bonora trapped Andy White in front of his stumps for 11 with Ireland just six runs short of victory.

Stirling brought up his 50 off 64 deliveries, with four boundaries, and had moved on to 58 when Kevin O'Brien hit the two runs required to get Ireland home with more than 13 overs to spare.

Simmons believes a small bit of complacency may have crept into his side's play yesterday.

"We just made it a little hard in the end, a few guys playing across the line," he said. "When it's like that you tend to get lads relaxing because they know it's going to happen . . . In Clontarf the balls we bowled early on would have gone over the stumps, but here they were sitting up to be hit so we did well to adjust and still get them for 150 or 160."

Simmons was delighted to see Stirling spend time in the middle, although he is likely to sit out tomorrow's decider.

"It's great to see him get a few and now he might just relax a little bit more and start to play like we know he can," added Simmons.

The coach had earlier rested Andre Botha and Peter Connell, but his top-five bowlers showed good discipline; O'Brien took two for 27 off his 10, and Cusack also took two wickets for 28 from nine.

It was Scotland's John Blain who put in the bowling display of the day, taking five wickets for 22 to bowl out the Netherlands for 117 in their ODI at Castle Avenue.

Scottish skipper Ryan Watson finished unbeaten on 54 to lead his side to a six-wicket victory.