Irish bowled over by underdog defeat of Pakistan

DUBLIN, Mar 18 (Reuters) Ireland's shock victory over Pakistan in the World Cup was greeted with delight and amazement back home where until recently many were unaware the country even had a cricket team.

The three-wicket victory at Sabina Park yesterday, with rank outsider Ireland scoring 133-7, was one of the biggest upsets in international cricketing history and all the sweeter for the Irish for coming on St. Patrick's Day, the country's national holiday.

''It was simply the finest day Irish cricket had ever seen,'' the Sunday Independent said, adding it outstripped even the occasion in 1969 when Ireland bowled the West Indies out for 25.

The Irish version of Britain's Sunday Times said the Irish now had a genuine chance of making the Super Eights, where they could come up against the likes of Australia, South Africa and England.

However, the newspaper noted the first task for many of the Irish team would be getting time off work as most were amateurs with jobs as postmen, electricians, teachers and delivery drivers.

While it has been played in Ireland for centuries, cricket has been a minority interest since the country's independence from Britain in 1921, with many nationalists dismissing it as a colonial hangover.

This weekend, however, the names of Niall O'Brien, who scored 72, and captain Trent Johnston were spoken with pride across the national airwaves.

The 1,000-plus Irish fans -- dubbed ''the Blarney Army'' by Irish media -- who cheered the team to victory watched the match unfold with growing disbelief, the Sunday Independent said.

''Ireland were just brilliant ... Bring on the West Indies,'' it quoted one jubilant supporter as saying.

The triumph in Jamaica was given added prominence by its taking some of the sting out of the Irish rugby team's failure to grab their first Six Nations crown since 1985, with France pipping them to the title yesterday.

REUTERS PDS PM0051