Biggest World Cup upset: O'Brien smashes fastest WC ton as Ireland stun England by 3 wickets

BANGALORE: Kevin O'Brien struck the fastest-ever World Cup hundred as Ireland pulled off a sensational three-wicket win over England on Wednesday. 

Ireland won with five balls to spare as they finished on 329 for seven after England, who had made 327 for eight, had been cruising when they reduced non-Test playing Ireland to 111 for five. 

But a brilliant burst of power-hitting got O'Brien to three figures in just 50 balls at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. 

That meant he'd obliterated former Australia opener Matthew Hayden's previous fastest World Cup century record off 66 balls against South Africa at St Kitts in 2007. 

O'Brien's whirlwind innings of 113 off 63 balls, including six sixes and 13 fours, ended when he was run out by Stuart Broad's throw to wicketkeeper Matt Prior. 

Ireland's target was down to three off the last over and victory was secured when John Mooney struck a four off James Anderson. 

"I don't think it's quite sunk in," said 26-year-old O'Brien, after another famous win to follow Ireland's shock World Cup triumph over Pakistan in 2007. 

"It's probably the best innings I've ever played. I just hit the ball pretty well and got a bit of luck and things went my way. I just kept going and kept attacking. 

"When we were 111-5 I said to myself we could have just pottered around and got 220 off 50 overs for eight or nine and the game would have been pretty boring to watch. 

"But I just chanced my arm and said I was going to be as positive as I can and got a few away and didn't look back." 

It was the highest successful run chase in World Cup history beating Sri Lanka's 313 against Zimbabwe at New Plymouth in New Zealand in 1992 

"It's pretty amazing," said Ireland batsman Alex Cusack, who made 47 in a decisive sixth-wicket partnership of 162 with O'Brien. 

"I was just trying to knock it around for Kev. He's got the power. That was my job and he was playing the big shots." 

England captain Andrew Strauss said: "We thought we'd done a reasonable job with the bat and we got Ireland at five down and things were looking pretty comfortable. 

"But we weren't reckoning on an outstanding innings from Kevin O'Brien. It was pretty brutal." 

Mooney struck several superb blows of his own on his way to 33 not out to complete a fine all-round display after he had claimed four wickets for 63 runs with his medium-pacers. 

O'Brien went to fifty in 30 balls when he pulled Anderson for six. 

He then lofted Anderson for an enormous six over midwicket, with television replays estimating the ball had carried for 102 metres, the longest of the tournament. 

O'Brien did have a break on 91 when a huge skyer off Paul Collingwood was dropped by Strauss. 

Ireland burst into life during the batting powerplay, scoring 62 runs in five overs. 

It was the second-time in a matter of days the Chinnaswamy Stadium had served up a run-fest after Sunday's extraordinary tie between India and England had seen the two teams make 676 runs between them. 

Anderson, whose first overs yielded one wicket for 11 runs, finished with figures of one for 49 in 8.1 overs while Broad was pummelled for 73 runs in nine wicketless overs. 

Earlier Jonathan Trott equalled the record for the fastest 1,000 runs in one-day internationals 

Trott's 92 was the centrepiece of England's 327 for eight and when he made 64 he equalled West Indies great Vivian Richards and England team-mate Kevin Pietersen in taking just 21 innings to reach four figures in ODIs. 

Ireland's victory was all the more impressive as they lost captain William Porterfield to the first ball of their reply when he dragged on to Anderson.

Read more: Biggest World Cup upset: O'Brien smashes fastest WC ton as Ireland stun England by 3 wickets - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/cricket/cricket-world-cup-2011/news/Biggest-World-Cup-upset-OBrien-smashes-fastest-WC-ton-as-Ireland-stun-England-by-3-wickets/articleshow/7613583.cms#ixzz1FVa47HZ6

World Cup: India-England thriller ends in a tie

BANGALORE: This was a game both India and England deserved to lose but in the end it was a tie. If the Indians seemed listless while defending a more than healthy 338, the English after being in a position to spoil the Indian party on a pitch on which the expected demons did not surface, suddenly seemed to have invoked the devil himself. In the end what transpired was the fourth ever tie in the history of the World Cup. 

The match swayed like a pendulum. The Indian total of 338, set up by a record fifth World Cup ton from Sachin Tendulkar, looked good enough at the break, more so as the hosts had gone in with two spinners. England captain Andrew Strauss had different ideas as he set about all but obfuscating Tendulkar's knock with his maiden World Cup ton. 

Then came the batting Powerplay. Suddenly from an impregnable 280/2 from 43 overs, when Strauss (158, 145b, 18x4, 1x6) and Bell (69, 71b, 4x4, 1x6) were going strong with a 170-run stand off 156 balls, things turned upside down. Zaheer Khan, hit around in his first two spells and held back by Mahendra Singh Dhoni for the Powerplay, got two in two, sending back Bell and Strauss to open up the game again. 

Suddenly the Indians were pumped up, as the English middle and late order collapsed. But then two sixes, one each by Graeme Swann and Tim Bresnan, both off Piyush Chawla's final over, the penultimate one of the innings, again changed the game. Fifteen had come from that over leaving 14 required from the last to be bowled by Munaf Patel. With number 10 Ajmal Shazad on strike, the match looked to be in India's grasp, but the drama wasn't over by any means. A solid six and some hurriedly run singles brought the equation to two runs off the ball. They got one and the Bangalore crowd, some of whom had left early seeing India's chances all but gone, got what they expected least. A tie! 

Before that, the Indians had got most things right. Having decided to play with two spinners in Harbhajan Singh and Chawla, it was important that Dhoni won the toss and allowed his spinners the second use of the pitch. That part went along the script as did the batting, with the top-order firing for the second match in succession. It was even better that the middle-order too got a chance to show their wares and they didn't do too badly either. 

Only Tim Bresnan stood up and got noticed among English bowlers. Having dismissed the fortuitous as well as dangerous-looking Sehwag off his fifth ball, Bresnan came back at the death, to keep the Indians from running away to a total in excess of 350. His final analysis of 10-1-48-5 was true reflection of his showing on the afternoon. 

No other English bowler went under five an over, with James Anderson in real danger of going for twice that. Every Indian batsman got stuck into him. Tendulkar and Gambhir used his wayward line and length to full effect. That Tendulkar (120, 115b, 10x4, 5x6) picked boundaries even off his better deliveries, ensured that it was not to be Anderson's day. 

Once Sehwag (35, 26b, 6x4) had gone, poking at Bresnan for wicketkeeper Matt Prior to bring off a fine one-handed catch diving to his right, the right-left pair of Tendulkar and Gambhir (51, 61b, 5x4) took charge. Without looking in any sort of hurry, the master-blaster milked the bowlers before assaulting them. 

The innings wasn't just about Tendulkar and Gambhir though, even if their 134-run second wicket stand set it up. There was also Yuvraj Singh, rightly promoted ahead of Kohli seeing that it was the 30th over, and Dhoni, whose 25-ball 31 went almost unnoticed. Yuvraj (58, 50b, 9x4) wasn't at his fluent best but who knows this knock could well be the launching pad for more to come. 

Warne predicted it 8 hours ago 

Shane Warne was bang on target when before the start of the match he Tweeted saying "Looking forward to the game between India and England today. My prediction... a tie." And the cracker of a contest which saw 676 runs being scored did actually end up in a tie, making Warne's prediction come true.

Source:-http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/cricket/cricket-world-cup-2011/news/World-Cup-India-England-thriller-ends-in-a-tie/articleshow/7585674.cms