This had been a pretty miserable tour for the Boys In Green. After losing heavily at the hands of both Guyana and Jamaica, as well as one of their warm-ups against the Trinidad and Tobago 'A' team. By all rights, they could have been forgiven for not rousing themselves to defeat their illustrious opposition; and yet they rose to the occasion in spectacular fashion in the same way that they always do when they reach the finals of competitions, and generally whenever a crunch game comes up.
Coming up close on the horizon is round one of the World Twenty20. They will be trying to prevail over Zimbabwe, Netherlands and the UAE in order to reach the "Super 10" phase of the tournament. The Netherlands and UAE rarely pose a problem, although the Emirati spinners will find the conditions in Sylhet very much to their liking, and if Zimbabwe can find eleven players willing to turn out for them, you'd have to argue that they will be second-favourites, too. Especially after this result. For certain, I'd say that Ireland will be favourites to win Group B.
Should they progress, they will be grouped with New Zealand, South Africa, Sri Lanka and local rivals England. England also happen to be the country closest to Ireland in the rankings table, and the team most under threat from an Irish run of victories. They also happen to be a team who are very much in transition, and will be able to compare themselves with the Irish by facing the West Indies in a week or so. All four of those Full Members are strong, for sure, but none of them are unbeatable. Without Trent Johnston (and of course, Rankin and Morgan - lest we forget) it is fair to say that the Irish lack some superstar quality, but you wouldn't exactly call them rank outsiders either.
Let us assume that Ireland defeat Zimbabwe, beat the Associates, and win one other game somewhere along the line by the end of March. That would mean that they'd have clocked up at least three victories against Full Member opposition in six weeks. They would be proving yet again, as they did even in defeat against Pakistan and England, that the only way for them to continue to grow is via Test cricket.
But for now, let's just say "well played Ireland".