Ireland's Cup adventure comes to an end

As the Times newspaper said 'It could almost have been written by an Irish hand. Victory in a one-day competition ? in two days, yet this was no accident. Surrey, arguably the strongest county in the domestic game, were beaten and beaten well with 10 balls to spare'.

Ireland have had a great run in recent times, beating Zimbabwe by 10 wickets last year, and reaching the last 16 of the Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy will have done them no harm ahead of this year's ICC Intercontinental Cup and the European Championships. Surrey had not previously lost to a non-championship or Minor Counties side and with 8 international players Ireland achieved the unthinkable on 5-6 May.

Jason Molins, the Irish captain, set about the task of chasing surrey's total of 261 achieved on the first day with relish. Scoring just over a run a ball he was removed by Azhar Mahmood for 58. He and Jeremy Bray put on over a hundred for the first wicket setting it up for Gerald Dros (45) and finally Andrew White to score the winning runs and receive Man of the Match for his 3 for 43.

Ireland put up a great show in the next round scoring 263 in 50 overs against Northants on 30th May, but sadly their bowling was not quite up to the mark with a damp ball and Northants won by 6 wickets. This run will have given Ireland confidence going into this season's ICC tournaments ahead of the ICC Trophy World Cup qualifiers in Ireland next July.