This wasn't a disaster, but it must be a wake-up call

By Nasser Hussain for the Daily Mail

That was simply unbelievable. There will be a lot of talk about what England did wrong but what Kevin O'Brien did for Ireland was breathtaking. There was no luck involved.

O'Brien simply took them from the brink of defeat to probably the greatest triumph in their cricketing history with a world-class display of proper, clean, one-day hitting.

Big hitter: Kevin O'Brien hits a yet another massive six as England struggle to contain the Irish minnows


He favoured the leg side but there was nothing unorthodox or flukey about it. If he had been wearing an Australian shirt we would have hailed O'Brien for playing one of the great one-day innings and that's how we should look at it now. England were just run ragged and had no answer.

You could see the looks of utter disbelief on the England players' faces as they seemed to be thinking: 'He can't pull this off, can he? Surely he's going to hit it straight up in the air in a minute.' He didn't and the guys around him didn't crack under the pressure, either.

Andrew Strauss is bowled by Ireland's George Dockrell

Setback: Andrew Strauss is bowled by Ireland's George Dockrell

Think of Eoin Morgan and how cool he is in the heat of a run chase for England.

Well, Ireland had four or five more Morgans and they should be applauded for consistently producing a large number of cool, calm, calculating cricketers. They are a very impressive bunch who deserve to enjoy this moment for all it's worth. Ireland were 111 for five in the 25th over, for heaven's sake, but still won with ease, not least because of their intelligent use of the power-play and the support their players gave O'Brien.

What of England? Well, they have bowled and fielded very poorly throughout this World Cup so far and that was always going to catch up with them at some stage. I keep telling everyone here what a great fielding side England are but what we are seeing is nothing like the sheer brilliance we saw during the Ashes. They dropped catches, misfielded and generally looked sloppy.

They cannot afford another slip-up if they are to progress.

The brilliant game against India on Sunday felt like a point gained for England but after this it feels like a point lost. I still fancy them against the bigger teams and I am optimistic about their chances against South Africa on Sunday but the following game against Bangladesh in Chittagong looks like a massive banana skin. England will have to be a lot better than this.

They looked like a very tired team by the end. Kevin Pietersen and Graeme Swann went off with injuries and Stuart Broad was hobbling around as well.

The batting on the whole has been much better but there were areas of concern there yesterday, too. Andrew Strauss and Pietersen got England off to a great start but then the captain played a really silly shot, while Pietersen - a man who has taken Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan apart - inexplicably played a little dab reverse-sweep to a spinner when he was going so well. Why on earth did he do that? It was almost like: 'It's only Ireland, it will be OK.'

The batsmen seemed to be leaving the job for someone else to complete and they should have scored at least 340 from the position they were in, just as India should have scored more against England on Sunday. England hit 70 off the last 10 overs but only two fours in the last five and that was just as big a reason for their defeat as the bowling. Where was the finisher they so badly needed?

All is not lost and England are the sort of team I would still fancy to do well in the knockout stages - providing they get there. This is not a return to the bad old days. But it is one huge wake-up call.

NASSER HUSSAIN: This wasn't a disaster, but it must be a wake-up call

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