Ireland beat Germany to top group and progress to semis

Ireland have progressed to the semi-finals of the ICC T20 World Cup Qualifier after a comprehensive win over Germany at the Al Almerat Stadium.

Ireland started their run chase knowing that if they could complete the victory in less than 16 overs they would guarantee themselves progression to the semi-final stage after Bahrain – playing in a concurrent match – posted 172-5 against UAE, setting up an exciting finish to this group stage of the tournament.

After an efficient bowling performance that restricted Germany to 107-7, the Irish batters completed the run chase in 13.1 overs with Harry Tector flashing a square cut to the boundary to bring up the winning runs.

Paul Stirling (34) and Andrew Balbirnie (32) posted a 67-run opening stand from just 47 balls to get the run chase off to the necessary start, but despite both openers falling within three balls of each other, Tector and Lorcan Tucker saw out the win.

During Balbirnie's innings he brought up his 5,000th run for Ireland across all formats.

In the other match, Bahrain completed a remarkable two-run win over heavy favourites UAE, but it wasn’t quite enough to progress to the semi-final on net run rate meaning Ireland finished first in the group.

Ireland’s opponents in tomorrow’s do-or-die semi-final will be determined in this afternoon’s matches – with the winner of tomorrow’s semi-final qualifying for the T20 World Cup in Australia in October.

After the match captain Balbirnie said: "We were really good today, we set ourselves the task at the toss, and our bowlers put it in good areas – there was a bit in it for the bowlers, and they bowled tightly. It was a really complete performance and we’re starting to get it together at the right end of the tournament.

"I think the