When Ed Joyce drilled a four to the extra cover boundary to secure a five wicket victory over Northumberland in the NatWest Trophy at Jesmond yesterday, it brought a happy ending to a day of some anxiety. Five wickets and 13 balls in hand looks comfortable but had debutant Dwayne McGerrigle not produced his Man-of-the-Match winning wicket in the 45th over the home side could have made the target very distant indeed. The mathematics of the last 10 overs were simple. Ireland required five runs an over with five wickets in hand and skipper Angus Dunlop sensibly dropped anchor and allowed Joyce have his day which he did with some style.

Replying to Northumberland's 253, Kyle McCallan and Neil Carson set up a wonderful platform of 103 but Stephen Smyth was in too much of a hurry and after a couple of marvellous sixes and fours he perished taking the aerial route once too often. South African "guest" Gerald Dros fell to a great catch on the third man boundary but he will be disappointed that he did not play more of a percentage game.

Jesmond: The Ireland and Northumberland teams

Although McGerrigle's final figures were impressive, he had taken a pounding up to that magical 45th over. After his ninth over his figures stood at 2-65. In fact although McCallan and Ryan Eagleson finished wicketless, their concession of 31 runs each in their 10 overs spells mark them out as the pick of the Irish attack. Matt Dwyer was unusually varied in his length and Gordon Cooke produced a mixed bag. The latter was costly but would have had three wickets had Dunlop steadied himself under a skier when the home side's top scorer Wayne Falla, who scored 80, was only on 21.

While comparison of the extras columns will show the home side's hospitality was more than generous, the happy fact is that this was Ireland's first NatWest Trophy win (or Gillette Cup predecessor) going back to 1980.

Next up are the Essex County Board side at Comber, today fortnight, with a third round home match against English County Champions Leicestershire the prize. A good day was had by everyone Irish but, as chairman of selectors Ronnie Lawlor noted, "We made it unnecessarily difficult for ourselves".