Brickfields Press, 2011
ISBN 9780956963802.
Softback, 122pp.

Price: €12.99

It was a steamy night in Bangalore. It was noisy in the M Chinnaswamy Stadium and the air was heavy with humidity. It was England versus Ireland in the Cricket World Cup, a match that would turn out to be one of the greatest upsets in the long history of the game.

England had scored 327, and Ireland were 111 for 5. The English journalists in the press box had begun updating their Facebook pages or Twitter feeds, thinking the match was over as a contest.

They reckoned without one Kevin O'Brien, who scored the fastest century in World Cup history and dispatched the cream of England's bowling at all parts of the ground.

O'Brien scored 113 runs off 63 balls that night, hitting 13 fours and six sixes as Ireland chased down England's total. It was, as England batting legend Geoffrey Boycott conceded, one of the great one-day innings.

Ireland's victory transcended the narrow confines of the sport in Ireland. People who had no interest in cricket, or who actively disliked it, were caught up in the drama of that famous night.

Suddenly, everyone wanted to know about O'Brien, and why he'd dyed his hair purple (the Shave or Dye fundraiser), where he came from (the Railway Union club in Dublin's Sandymount) and whether they had any more like him (they did - his older brother Niall has more runs in fewer matches for Ireland).

Ireland beat Holland in that World Cup, and lost to Bangladesh, the West Indies, India and South Africa. But it was the victory against England that everyone remembers, the drama of it, the seemingly impossible total of 328 required to win, the faltering start made by Ireland (opening batsman William Porterfield was out for 0) and then the flashing bat of Kevin O'Brien.

Now Ger Siggins, the doyen of Irish cricket writers, has, in collaboration with Kevin O'Brien, given an insider's account of the tournament and the England match.