This was the second match against England, having first played them in 2006 at Stormont, a match Ireland lost by 38 runs. 7 of the Irish team who played in that match were present today, while only 4 of the England team were playing today. Irish captain Trent Johnston had recovered from injury and return in place of John Mooney.

Report by Ian Callender in Daily Mail on 31st March 2007.

For the second successive World Cup match, Ireland failed trial by spin and were forced to surrender the first Super Eight clash to England. But they continued to show they belong in the big league. Aside from embarrassing one-time colleague Ed Joyce, they successfully stifled most of the big guns before a late surge lifted England to 266-7.

Against West Indies last week, it was Chris Gayle who tied down the Ireland batsmen and yesterday, in the heat of the National Stadium in Guyana, it was Monty Panesar and the unlikely figure of Michael Vaughan who held the upper hand. Set 267 to win after an impressive 90 by Paul Collingwood Ireland were comfortable and up with the required rate for 21 overs. However, the next 19 overs yielded just 67 runs for the loss of three wickets and it was left to captain Trent Johnston (27 off 21 balls with two sixes) and Andrew White (38 off 35 balls with four fours) to plunder Ireland to respectability. The final margin of defeat was 48 runs.

The innings got off to the worst possible start when Jeremy Bray drove his first ball straight to the deep gully and when, three overs later, Eoin Morgan called William Porterfield for a quick single and was run out by the bowler, Ireland had lost her best two batsmen with just 11 runs on the board. William Porterfield looked good for 11 overs but, just as he did against Pakistan, got bogged down and 8 overs later gave his wicket away to Andrew Flintoff. Andre Botha was the first victim of spin, frustrated enough to sky Panesar to long-on and Kevin O'Brien was a leg before victim. The early hero for Ireland was Niall O'Brien who, having survived a chance to Ed Joyce on nine, played a composed innings of 63 before being stumped, off his pads.

For 45 overs of the England innings, Ireland were satisfied with their morning's work. Then Collingwood was rewarded for his patience on a difficult pitch to score runs and broke free. From 201-5, England hit five fours and four sixes in five overs of mayhem which produced 65 runs and put England out of sight. Collingwood, the batting success of the recent Commonwealth Bank Series in Australia, continued his rich vein of form with a second half-century of the World Cup. His 90 came off 82 deliveries and included 11 boundaries, three of them maximums. Johnston and Botha were on the receiving end of the late onslaught, but before that all the bowlers kept the England batsmen under pressure.

The sweetest wicket was, undoubtedly, the first. Ed Joyce, although a former Ireland team-mate of the majority of the squad, was the "enemy" in the Providence Stadium. The feeling, obviously, wasn't mutual because Ed gifted Rankin his wicket, shouldering arms to Boyd's first ball and he lost his off stump. With back to back half centuries against Canada and Kenya under his belt, it was a surprising non-shot from what should have been a confident batsman. When you are facing the country of your birth, however, the mind can do funny things and in two innings against Ireland, Joyce has scored 11 runs

Vaughan started like a million-dollar batsman but he too has a millstone around his neck. He has never scored a one-day century and he never threatened this time as Rankin struck again with the second ball of his third over, the England captain leaving his bat dangling outside off-stump and Niall O'Brien swooped to take the low catch. The third wicket partnership of 66 between Bell and Kevin Pietersen may have got the England innings back on course but it did nothing to get the number three into form. Bell scratched around for 74 balls for his 31 runs, with just two boundaries to his name, before Kevin O'Brien put him out of his misery, his second ball brushing the glove and his older brother claimed his second dismissal.

In contrast Pietersen, at least at the start of his innings, was poetry in motion. He walked to the middle as the world's best one-day batsmen and showed why with a classic array of shots all round the wicket. Off six successive balls, spread over three overs, he went 4-3-4-1-4-4 to take him into the 20s in double quick time. The arrival into the attack of Johnston and Botha put an end to that and Ireland regained a measure of control with disciplined bowling which not only saw England score just 12 runs in the third powerplay but eventually frustrated Pietersen. Seven short of a third half-century in the tournament, the South African turned Kyle McCallan straight to Porterfield's safe hands at mid-wicket.

Still the big names kept on coming, something Ireland will have to get used to in the Super Eights, and next it was Andrew Flintoff. He has not been in the best of form with the bat but he did a good job of disguising that with five firmly struck boundaries, including two in succession off Dave Langford-Smith which promptly curtailed his comeback spell to a solitary over.

The Ireland bowlers, however, would not be denied and Johnston got the prize wicket, Flintoff going for a late cut which trickled back onto his stumps. It wasn't quite their last success, Botha halted Paul Nixon's late flourish and Collingwood was run out with four balls remaining, but there was no question which team dominated the last six overs. It settled the match. The Man-of-the-Match award went to Paul Collingwood.

Report by Christopher Martin-Jenkins for The Times on March 31st 2007..

72 runs from the last six overs and another outstanding innings by Paul Collingwood eventually justified England's safety-first approach to innings building in Guyana's enervating tropical heat yesterday. Their total of 266-7 was enough in the end to beat Ireland, but it was never easy for them either with bat or ball.

In the field it was England's spinners, Monty Panesar and, much less predictably, Michael Vaughan who made the difference. With nine overs of nicely flighted off-breaks, after another failure with the bat, Vaughan demonstrated at once his good cricket brain and the genuineness of his recovery since the fourth operation on his right knee. He will have to start contributing with the bat, too, however, if England are to progress.

If Sri Lanka defeat West Indies here tomorrow, Vaughan and his team are almost certainly going to have to defeat Sri Lanka in Antigua next Wednesday. Ed Joyce had a miserable game and will surely have to give way to Andrew Strauss. As a unit they are still doing no more than just enough even against non-Test sides.

Ireland bowled and fielded comfortably yesterday. Niall O'Brien, one of five left-handers in the top five, then kept them in the game with a mature innings, paving the way for Trent Johnston and Andrew White to add 58 weighty runs between the 37th and 45th overs. Vaughan had to recall Andrew Flintoff, who had gone off the field for a time, and he duly bowled Johnston, but it was not until White paddled Collingwood to Paul Nixon that an upset could be ruled out.

Ireland had taken two wickets in the first six overs, held England to only a fraction better than four an over while fielding restrictions remained and took two more wickets as England tried in vain to take command that their much higher status required. When Kevin Pietersen clipped Kyle McCallan, the veteran off-spinner, to William Porterfield at mid-wicket, having looked the only man in England's top four capable of dominating, the prospect of a seriously imposing total had gone. The England batsmen did not have the mental courage, it seemed, to risk the bold, over-the-top shots that have made the difference to the likes of Matthew Hayden and Graeme Smith but Collingwood's fine timing eventually justified the approach.

Boyd Rankin, Ireland and Derbyshire's 6'7" opening bowler, took 2-22 in his opening spell of five overs. Joyce obliged in the second over by leaving a ball that nipped back and uprooted his off stump. Vaughan pushed tentatively at a ball pitched wide of his off stump. Pieterson looked in fluent touch but he and Ian Bell could push the total only to 85 at the 20 over mark as Porterfield lived up to his reputation as another Derek Randall, cutting off numerous singles on the edge of the circle. Eoin Morgan was not much less sharp. At 89 Bell was given out caught behind by O'Brien off his brother Kevin, standing up, and once Pietersen had gone only Collingwood was able to time it well on this slow but by no means utterly sluggish pitch.

England managed only 40 runs between the 20th and 30th overs, leaving themselves with a lot to do in the last 10 but Flintoff managed four fours before being undone by a slower offspinner from Johnston. Paul Nixon's promotion to join Collingwood at 194-5 in the 44th over signalled the belated England charge but had they not taken two early wickets to two fine pieces of fielding by Ravi Bopara and Sajid Mahmood, the finish would have been tight.

Man of the Match award went to England's Paul Collingwood.

Derek Scott, Ian Callender and Christopher Martin-Jenkins