Ireland moved within two wins of the T20 World Cup in Australia next October but this hard-fought victory over Bahrain yesterday only underlined that Andrew Balbirnie’s side will need their A-game to complete the job this week.

Germany tomorrow is the next must-win game for Ireland at the qualifying tournament in Oman and a semi-final against Nepal awaits on Tuesday, with only the winners going to Australia.

The positives from yesterday’s 21 runs win was another dashing opening partnership from Paul Stirling and Balbirnie – 62 in 8.4 overs – and a superb fifth wicket stand of 54 in 27 balls between Gareth Delany and George Dockrell, playing his 250th international, which propelled Ireland to a total of 158 for five.

Craig Young was, not for the first time recently, the stand-out bowler. Playing his 50th T20 game for Ireland, he is now the senior figure in the pace bowling department and added three more wickets at a cost of just 16 runs to his tally of recent successes - it's now 20 wickets in his last seven games across all formats.

Young’s North West Warriors skipper, Andy McBrine, back in the shortest format after four years in the wilderness, continues to prove that slow bowlers can be economical in T20s, conceding just 19 runs and two boundaries in his four overs. In the last, he ended nine barren overs with his 100th wicket across all formats for Ireland.

“So many milestones going on,” said a satisfied Balbirnie after the match. “But special mention for George who started his career as a left arm spinner and is now winning matches with the bat. Long may it continue.

“We were in a tricky position with the bat (at 100 for four) but George and Gareth played match-winning innings and we turned the screw with the ball.

“We knew it would be tough cricket with every team fighting for position and wins and it will be same against Germany, If we are not on it, we are going to come up short, so we have to make sure we are on it from ball one as we were pretty much today.”

Stirling and Balbirnie each hit three fours and a six in their 30s, with Delany the only one to go onto a half-century, albeit off the final ball of the innings, having enjoyed a life on 25. Dockrell was the most dominant batsmen, hitting 24 off 11 balls with two sixes.

The negatives, however, show no sign of going away any time soon. Stirling and Balbirnie were dismissed within 10 balls of each other, and they were quickly followed by a fatal yes-no call from Delany which left Harry Tector, in for Shane Getkate yesterday, stranded and Lorcan Tucker was lbw for just five.

Josh Little, Ireland’s bright young pace-bowling hope, is going through a bad patch, with the mitigating factor that he has had a busy winter, and his two wickets on this trip have cost 135 runs while Adair drew another blank yesterday but, to be fair, has had only one crucially expensive over.

Germany proved they will be no pushovers by scoring 167 for nine, batting second against UAE yesterday, and while they came up 24 runs short it was still 28 runs more than Ireland managed in the same position on the same pitch on Friday.

Assuming Ireland avoid what would be the biggest upset in their history — the Germans are ranked 34th in the world, 19 places below Ireland — a Semi-Final victory would be a fitting way to celebrate Balbirnie’s 50th game as Ireland captain.

But after losing to Namibia at the last World Cup in a must-win game to reach the Super 12s, no one is taking anything for granted.