The international press have been reacting to Ireland's shock win over the West Indies this morning. The fact that Ireland are now a well-respected cricketing nation is obvious, each mention that the win was an upset without choosing to dwell on it, a departure from wins over England and Pakistan is previous World Cup's.
ESPN Cricinfo
Cricinfo were equally damning of the West Indies as they were in praise of Ireland, a theme prevalent in most press coverage of the win.
The praise though was very high indeed, Ireland coasted to victory 'efficiently and without anxiety' with Ireland's main men Stirling, Joyce and Niall O'Brien 'adventurous', 'smooth' and 'nerveless' according to the site.
Pointedly the highly respected website put scorn on the ICC's continued efforts to restrict the ODI World Cup to the test playing nations to the exclusion of the minnows, declaring the win
A two-finger salute to the administrators' plans to keep them and other smaller cricket teams out of the World Cup".
TVNZ
The state broadcaster in the country which played host to the match reckon Ireland are looking well for the quarter finals, now possible with wins over the UAE and Zimbabwe. Praise is forthcoming for the decision to bowl first, a bold one given no team had won having batted second in this world cup. They ended their piece with a dig at the ICC;
The match marked the first appearance at this tournament of an associate team - one of cricket's non test-playing nations - and delivered a stern rebuke to the International Cricket Council which will attempt to shut those teams out of the next World Cup by limiting entry to 10 teams.
The Guardian
The Guardian were amongst the papers to reflect that the win wasn't capped with centuries for Niall O'Brien and Ed Joyce. That alone is a measure of how far Ireland have progressed on the world stage in that a win in itself can be seen to have its faults.
However, once again there was the caveat that this West Indies team is not the team of the past number of years.
Jason Holder’s side had been in disarray before the tournament with off-spinner Sunil Narine withdrawing and the players involved in a bitter wrangle with their board over payments.
Few expected them to seriously challenge for the title and with the loss to Ireland in their opening match, they could be in danger of not making the quarter-finals from Pool B.
BBC
The BBC point out that there have been just five successful run chases of over 300 in World Cup history and that three have been made by Ireland. While acknowledging that the win was a shock, they say that Ireland could have been considered favourites going in to the match considering the turmoil the Windies had found themselves in. Like theirs peers, praise was heaped on Stirling and Joyce; 'pugnacious' and 'effortless' the adjectives used to describe their batting.
I'd say this is a better victory than the one against England, that was a one-man show from Kevin O'Brien, this was a team effort, five or six people putting their hands up and delivering a world-class performance." - Graeme Swann
The Times of India
Ireland cemented their reputation as giant-killers, paying scant regard to the rankings of either team according to the largest selling English Daily in the world. The Windies inability to contain Ireland, using eight bowlers to try to stifle the attack was highlighted. The paper saved what was the best compliment of the lot for its last line;
Ireland's victory was achieved with such a calm professionalism that it was hard to tell which was the top-eight team.
It's safe to say Ireland are no longer taking as a novelty in cricketing terms having built on previous wins. The fact that several news sources have used to occasion to call for Ireland to be given greater access to top-level cricket is very welcome indeed.
