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Excitement is really building now there are just three weeks to go until the World Cup, so this week we will look at what is probably the most exciting match in Ireland’s World Cup history.
In 2007, Ireland lined up for their first ever World Cup match against Zimbabwe in Sabina Park, Jamaica. It was the first match of the tournament for both teams, and although they were deemed to be Ireland’s weakest opponents at the tournament, Zimbabwe were still favourites to win the match.

After losing the toss and being asked to bat, Will Porterfield was out in the first over, and a steady stream of wickets fell throughout the innings for Ireland. Only Jeremy Bray resisted the Zimbabwe bowling attack, scoring a brilliant 115 not out as Ireland finished on 221-9 after their 50 overs.

Bray’s century was the only century for an Irishman at the 2007 World Cup, and will always be remembered fondly by fans, even if it was overshadowed by the finale of the match! Watching Bray score that century gave fans the belief that Ireland’s players could compete on that world stage, and that carried the team through the second innings.

Zimbabwe started well with the bat and reached 92 before their second wicket fell, with the Africans looking comfortable in their run chase, but some excellent bowling swung the game towards Ireland in the middle of the innings as Zimbabwe stumbled to 133-5.

Stuart Matsikenyeri and Brendan Taylor steadied the ship for Zimbabwe though, and the game seemed to have gotten away from Ireland when the pair needed just 19 more runs, and there were still five wickets remaining.

At that point Matsikenyeri smashed a ball straight back towards Kyle McCallan, who got his fingers to the ball before it hit the stumps at the non-strikers end. There was a tense moment as the third umpire was called upon, but Taylor had not been able to make it back to his crease and was run out.

The game suddenly changed and there was hope again for Ireland.

With 36 balls remaining Zimbabwe only needed 15 runs and still had four wickets remaining, but Andre Botha and Kevin O’Brien struck in consecutive overs before a run out on the last ball of the 49th over meant Zimbabwe still needed nine to win from the last over, but only had one wicket remaining.

Andrew White, who is now Ireland’s most capped player, stepped up to bowl the last over, despite not having a great day with the ball to that point.

Unfortunately for Ireland Matsikenyeri was still in and on strike, and he scored four from the first two balls of the over to ease some of the pressure. The third ball he made a mess of a full toss and spooned up what seemed to be a catch to mid-wicket, but Boyd Rankin didn’t pick it up and it dropped short.

Matsikenyeri was then able to tie the scores with once ball remaining, meaning it was all or nothing from the final ball of the match.

White bowed a full ball and Matsikenyeri missed it, meaning Niall O’Brien was able to collect and Ed Rainsford, the number 11 for Zimbabwe was run out and the match became only the third game in World Cup history to be a tie.

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