Just about 7.30am on Wednesday, Irish cricket fans back home were waking up and switching TVs on in the middle of a nightmare, with Ireland slipping to 61-4 against Scotland in the second match of their T20 World Cup campaign.

The Irish squad had flown 18,000km to play 120 overs in a week, and after 70 overs they were already heading for departures. One more wicket and the bags could be packed.

But up stepped Curtis Campher and George Dockrell, who took control and then took charge to claim a superb victory and bring their team to a shoot-out with West Indies.

We worried that too many of the team were out of sorts, scarred by recent failures. Barry McCarthy, in the team because of Craig Young’s injured hip, had been brutalised by the Scots, going for 59 in his four overs, Ireland’s worst in World Cups. In the third over the Pembroke man dug the ball into the pitch, forcing Kyle Meyers to spoon the ball to a fielder and some of those fears were settled.

Ireland’s seamers kept it tight but the revitalised spinners showed the benefits of working with Australian coach Nathan Hauritz. Both Gareth Delany and Simi Singh can turn the ball both ways and they forced the Windies batsmen to hit to the longer side of the ground. Delany’s googly was his killer ball and his 3-16 great reward for his bravery in flighting his deliveries.

The target of 147 was well within Ireland’s capability but the doubts lingered about the off-form top order. Paul Stirling and Andy Balbirnie both made fifties in a century partnership against Oman in April, but in 42 innings since both had floundered and made just two fifties more.

Stirling went on the attack, sweeping spinner Akeal Hossein while Balbirnie exposed Odean Smith’s weaknesses. By the end of the six-over powerplay Ireland were 64-0 and cruising. Balbirnie’s dismissal slowed things briefly – 17 balls without a boundary – before Stirling smoked Alzarri Joseph into the crowd. Lorcan Tucker continued to prosper with his superb sweeping and victory was secured with 15 balls to spare.

Balbirnie and coach Heinrich Malan have been harping on about ‘performance’ for a while, echoing the famous Jim Telfer ‘Everest’ speech to the 1997 British and Irish Lions in South Africa. The Scottish coach told his team before the First Test: “Defeat doesn’t worry me. I’ve had it often and so have you. It’s performance that matters. If you put in the performance, you’ll get what you deserve. No luck attached to it. If you don’t put it in, then we’re second-raters.”

The captain revisited the theme after the game, saying “The big thing for us is not to worry too much about the results. Hopefully we can continue to back ourselves even when our backs are against the wall, we came out fighting and played a certain way and we won a game. That’s what we want this team to play, win or lose.”

The most heartening thing this week was not that Ireland depended on their stars, Stirling or Josh Little, to drag them over the line. The seamers and middle-order bats took down the Scots, the spinners and top-order beat the West Indies. And the one bat yet to fire has been a world beater in the field.

The Irish team that started the week so lamely against Zimbabwe is a different one to that which strode into the Super 12. There they will need to step up a level – New Zealand’s demolition of Australia yesterday was chilling – but will be confident of picking up a win or two against Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, England, Australia and New Zealand.

But spare a thought for Phil Simmons, Ireland coach from 2007-15. Seven years ago, he masterminded Ireland’s win over West Indies thanks to a Stirling fifty and Dockrell wickets. It spelt the end for Windies coach Stuart Williams and ensured Simmons moved to his dream job after that World Cup.

His T20 side has struggled without its retired superstars and missing mercenaries keener to play franchise leagues. Defeats to Scotland and Ireland have enraged WI Board chairman Ricky Skerritt who said yesterday that “a thorough postmortem will be carried out on all aspects of our World Cup preparation and performance.”