GEORGE Dockrell was Ireland's unlikely hero with the bat as they made it two wins out of two to consolidate third place in Group B at the World Cup and keep them on course for place in the quarter-finals.

It was Dockrell to the rescue after first Kevin O'Brien, then Gary Wilson gave up match-winning innings with victory over the UAE in sight. They eventually made it with just four balls and two wickets remaining.

“I had a plan when I went out there, I wasn't too nervous and made good contact with the boundary which got us to within three runs of victory. My next shot wasn't quite so convincing but it landed safely and we were home. Now we are after win number three,” said Dockrell.

The squad know that a vastly improved performance will be needed, however, because it is world number two side, South Africa, featuring the world's number one batsman, AB de Villiers, who are up next, in Canberra on Tuesday. A repeat of the Ireland bowling performance, especially in the final 15 overs of the UAE innings, could see Ireland concede 400 runs!

The UAE, the lowest ranked team in this World Cup, helped themselves to 147 from the batting powerplay to the end yesterday, as they recovered from 131 for six to finish on 278 for nine with Shaiman Anwar becoming the first Emirati batsman to score a World Cup century.

The bowling which had served skipper William Porterfield so well up front, after he won the toss, lost all discipline in what was a long, slow death to the innings, as he admitted.

“It's a massive ground and we didn't get it 100 per cent right. A few of our plans, we can maybe look at, but is a very difficult time of the game. But you have to give them a lot of credit the way they struck the ball and the way they played. They did it against Zimbabwe (in their first game) and now they've done it against ourselves.

“But I knew it was going to a very hard to defend at the back end and was one of the reasons why I decided to bowl first, hopefully to take early wickets,” said the captain, who opted to bring in Alex Cusack, in his home city, in place of the unlucky Andy McBrine, as an extra seam option on the bouncy Gabba pitch.

Cusack's batting contribution, in the end, proved as vital as his bowling as Ireland's charge for victory reached its thrilling conclusion. Gary Wilson was deservedly named man of the match for his 80, from 69 balls with 10 fours, but he was upstaged in a sixth wicket stand of 72 with Kevin O'Brien who threatened to repeat his heroics against England in Bangalore four years ago.

This time, Ireland's best known player reached 50 off 24 balls with two enormous sixes into the second tier of the huge Brisbane venue, before driving his next ball straight to cover, and when John Mooney and Wilson, to a super catch at short thirdman, followed in the space of four balls, Ireland were 267 for eight, still 12 short of victory.

But Cusack scrambled a two and three singles and Dockrell's two scoring shots gave Ireland the 10 th highest chase in World Cup history; they already hold the first, third and fourth.

“It was obviously closer than we wanted it to be, said Wilson. “But we've been in this position before at a World Cup, big tournament, big stage, and chased down totals before, and I think that really stood us in good stead. We knew that if a couple of us were there until close to the end that we had a pretty good shot at winning. We've got four points, and that's all we can ask for right now.”

Porterfield's decision to bowl first - “that's the first time going out there that, literally, it was a toss-up what I should do” - nearly backfired as there was appreciably more movement under the floodlights and the UAE bowlers took full advantage with superb new balls spells by Manjula Garuge and Mohammed Naveed, backed up by the impressive Amjad Javed who was certainly the unluckiest bowler of the day.

He ‘bowled' Ed Joyce which duly lit up the bails but, remarkably, they bounced back into their groove and the Sussex captain batted on. Unconvincingly, it must be said - he was also dropped off his own bowling by UAE captain Mohammed Tauqir - before Joyce edged to the keeper for a less than fluent 37.

But it will be time well spent if it makes it easier to cope with Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Vernon Philander in Canberra. For now, Ireland can say they have won the most exciting match of the tournament so far.

And as Wilson, not so subtly, said in his post-match Press conference: “Just remind me, was it two teams outside the top eight that played this game that made it a good game?” ICC are you listening?