THIS Ireland team never knows when it is beaten. With their 12-match undefeated record in the Intercontinenal Cup on the line as never before, they dismissed Namibia, set just 115 to win, for 106, with Boyd Rankin finishing with five for 39, his best figures for Ireland.

It was all over inside five sessions of a four-day match and gives Ireland the task of taking maximum points from Kenya in Nairobi next weekend to qualify for their third successive final. After this heroic display it would be a brave man to bet against them.

Namibia’s consolation in defeat was the knowledge they are the first team through to the final. They had their chance to ensure they would not have to meet Ireland again but their first defeat, in their seventh and final game, means the holders are still favourites to defend their crown, in Potchestroom at the end of the month.

There may have been closer big-match margins - the tie against Zimbabwe in the first match of last year’s World Cup finals, the most memorable - but for sustained excitement it will be hard pushed to beat the last two days.

Bowled out for 69 shortly after lunch on Friday - the lowest total in the four-year, 70-match history of the competition - Ireland had no right to escape with a victory. Not only did they do that they nearly achieved maximum points, reducing the Namibians to 37 for seven in their first inn ings. The last three wickets gave the hosts what should have been a vital 50 runs lead and it looked down and out for William Porterfield’s side when they closed a remarkable first day on 77 for five.

How many could the tail add? The It was felt they needed another 125 minimum on a pitch which gave the bowlers just too much assistance for a four-day game. In reality, Ireland were all out for 164 with no-one able to better Andre Botha’s 29, incredibly the highest individual innings in the match.

Namibia were left with one over to face before lunch and even that was not without drama, Deon Kotze hitting Peter Connell through the slips at catchable height.

For three innings, the new ball had caused the damage so it was imperative, if Ireland had any chance of victory, that Connell and Warwickshire’s Boyd Rankin, bowling together for the first time in a two-innings game, took early wickets. They did not let their team-mates down.

Rankin made the breakthrough in his third over, having JB Burger caught at first slip off a rising delivery and by the end of the next over Connell had bowled Sorel Burger and strangled Kotze down the legside for Niall O’Brien to take a tumbling catch. When Rankin made it 31 for four, Ireland were on top but no-one, even then, expected it to be straightforward. It wasn’t.

The next twist was a knife in the heart of the Ireland team as Gerrie Snyman was somehow dropped at cover point. That would hav e been as good as game over but when the dan gerous all-rounder thumped 28 off the next dozen balls, including successive sixes off Rankin, it looked as if Alex Cusack had dropped the Intercontinental Cup.

Ridiculously, Snyman refused to rein himself in. Namibia had a minimum of 261 overs to get the runs. They looked as if they wanted to win with about 240 to spare. Ireland weren’t complaining and, sure enough, the batsman pulled once too often and Porterfield, leading by example, made no mistake at cover.

Still, the opening bowlers could not go on for ever - Connell actually bowled one over too many and was hit for 15 in his last - while Rankin had been replaced by Regan West, the New Zealander playing only his second match for Ireland, as spin was finally introduced. He had no more joy than the token over bowled by JB Burger on the first day so back came Rankin and Trent Johnston, seemingly stronger than ever after his six-month ‘retirement’ from the international one-day arena, charged in from the other.

It proved the winning combination as Namibia lost three wickets for eight runs and left the last pair of Louis Klasinga and Kola Burger to add 16 for the last wicket - the number of runs the No 11 scored in the first innings from four balls - to win the match They had added a nervous seven when Burger upper-cut Rankin to third man and Kyle McCallan, on his 201st appearance for Ireland, made no mistake. The tour was still alive.