If there was any doubt that Ireland deserved their place at the top table of world cricket, Ireland proved it at HQ with a performance that kept a packed house on tenterhooks until the last three overs. No-one was more worried than Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara who admitted that he didn’t change the field to help Lasith Malinga get a hat-trick because Ireland were only 39 runs from victory. It was that Malinga over, the 18th of the innings, that ultimately settled the outcome but still this courageous and talented team refused to give in.

John Mooney hit three fours in the next over and if anyone else but ‘Malinga the Slinger’ had sent down the last over, Ireland may have had a chance of causing the biggest upset in the short history of World Twenty20. Needing 18 to win their first Super Eight game they had to make do with eight but the margin of defeat has only encouraged the squad that they can still get that victory in the last match, against Pakistan at The Oval today. Mathematically they can still reach the semi finals but not only would they have to hammer Younis Khan’s side but New Zealand would also have to inflict a heavy defeat on the Sri Lankans in the last match in Group F. The odds are barely worth considering.

The tone for the Ireland display was set in the first six overs - the power play overs when only three fielders are allowed more than 30 yards from the bat. In Sri Lanka’s last match, against West Indies, Tillakaratne Dilshan and the ageless Sanath Jayasuriya helped themselves to 67. Yesterday Dilshan was out second ball and 5.4 overs later the scoreboard read 28 for two, the second lowest power play of the tournament.

Boyd Rankin, recalled in place of Peter Connell, made the breakthrough and Trent Johnston followed up by taking one for six in his first three overs including only the third maiden in the 19 matches. The stumbling block and, indeed, the man of the match was Mahela Jayawardene, the veteran of 102 Tests and 299 ODIs. For the next hour he defied everything the Ireland bowling threw at him, scoring 78 from 53 balls, his highest score in 47 T20 games. He was eventually bowled by Alex Cusack, the second of the Clontarf bowler’s four wickets in a spell of nine balls at a cost of just five runs. It was almost five for five but the last ball of the innings fell just in front of a diving Kevin O’Brien and went for four to give Sri Lanka a final total of 144 for nine.

With Niall O’Brien promoted to open in the absence of Gary Wilson - he was replaced by Andrew White - Ireland finally got the opening partnership they have craved all tournament, skipper William Porterfield scoring 31 out of 59. It took nine overs but the platform was there and with the spinners having made the breakthrough White was sent in at No 3 and he duly scored 22 at better than a run-a-ball. Niall O’Brien twisted the ankle he injured in the win against Bangladesh last Monday but still ran all but 16 of his 31 runs and at the end John Mooney matched the opening batsmen’s totals to continue his magnificent tournament. He also took a superb catch to give Rankin his second wicket.

The only difference in the end was Malinga and the spin twins of Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis. In their 12 overs they took five for 54. It needed that extra class to win the day.

Jon Coates reports

A mere nine runs stood between Irish cricket and another success for the ages, as the World Twenty20 continued to astonish. Ireland won't make the semi-finals but a lasting impression is made. In two games out of four they have looked a world-class Twenty20 side and at Lord's they drove Sri Lanka right to the edge of the cliff.

Slender factors rather than vast gulfs separated the sides. Sri Lanka relied on the class of one batsman to get them out of a hole and without all three of their superstar bowlers they would have left Lord's as ashen-faced as India did last night. Ireland, meanwhile, will always wonder what might have been had Niall O'Brien not twisted his right ankle for the second time in a week. The 'minnows' needed seven runs an over to win and the openers were sitting pretty on six-an-over when, with Eoin Morgan watching with his England mates on the balcony, the pugnacious Dubliner crumpled beside the crease. Soon the run chase stalled and O'Brien, the hero of 2007, Jamaica and all that, will surely have to watch the reunion with Pakistan from the dugout.

Ireland were focused, confident and inspired from the start and for three-quarters of the game matched the 1995 world champions blow for blow. The other quarter was taken out of their hands. Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis were hypnotic and 'Slinger' Lasith Malinga was irresistible, obliterating the stumps twice in a row as Ireland's hopes of smashing 40 from the last three overs faded. Still John Mooney refused to go quietly, scoring 31 not out off 21 balls, but no batsman alive can hit 18 an over off Malinga when his radar is functioning. Nothing should detract from Ireland's most eye-catching performance since St Patrick's Day of 2007.

Already this month Lord's had borne witness to a drama you had to see to believe. But if Holland beating England will be the emblem of this tournament, an Irish defeat of Sri Lanka would have been the greater scalp. Daring duo O'Brien and William Porterfield were purring along in pursuit of the Lankans' modest 144-9, trading in regular fours, when O'Brien tried to withdraw from a single and ended up yelping in pain on the turf.

Last Monday against Bangladesh the left-hander was permitted a runner but yesterday, having brought the injury into the game, he knew Sangakkara had the right to refuse him the privilege and he didn’t ask the question. His immobility hindered Ireland, even though the wicketkeeper launched an assault on Angelo Mathews with consecutive fours bringing up the 50. In the following over Sri Lanka tightened the vice.

First blood went to Murali when Porterfield's aggression finally let him down. After a squeamish period of pressure, Ireland needed 70 runs off the last seven overs. Andrew White broke the shackles by steering a six off Nuwan Kulasekara, then driving him for four. But when three batsmen vanished in eight balls, that impetus evaporated.

The beguiling Mendis removed both O'Brien brothers in the 15th over. Kevin, with another swipe across the line, was first to go and Niall's courageous vigil was over when he came down the wicket and missed. The great Murali cranked up the pressure with another miserly over, and then it was the Malinga show. The pace and dip he gets on his toe-crunching deliveries are the cricketing equivalent of the Ronaldo free-kick, and when Trent Johnston and Andre Botha had their stumps splayed, the remaining blows from Mooney were really just acts of defiance.

If Ireland's batting was better than it was against New Zealand, improvement was even more evident with ball in hand. It was a superb display of sustained pressure and only Mahela Jayawardene survived scrutiny. Phil Simmons has made it clear that Boyd Rankin is in the team to get wickets, and it took him just two balls to induce a false shot from Tillakaratne Dilshan. Trent Johnston turned the screw at the other end, allowing just six runs from two scoring shots in his first three overs. Reaching speeds of 81mph, the 35-year-old claimed the scalp of Sangakkara when O'Brien completed a fine catch standing up to the wicket, his second of four dismissals.

Sri Lanka's best batting was squeezed into a partnership of 67 between Sanath Jayasuriya and Jayawardene, the latter summoning the finest flicks and drives in an imperious innings of 78 off 53 balls. But for all his individual brilliance, the acceleration never came and Ireland had Kyle McCallan and Alex Cusack to thank for that. McCallan had a stroke of luck in dismissing Jayasuriya lbw after the ball brushed off his glove, but Cusack fully merited all four of his wickets and could have had a world record-equalling fifth, on the last ball of the innings, when Kevin O'Brien dived for a Mendis drive but couldn't get his fingers under the ball.

Ian Callender (Belfast Telegraph) and Jon Coates (Irish Daily Mail)