Irish eyes smiling after UAE thriller

The luck of the Irish has helped deny United Arab Emirates (UAE) a thrilling maiden World Cup victory on Wednesday night.

Gary Wilson (80 off 69) made his own fortune to help guide Ireland (8-279) to a two-wicket win with four balls to spare at the Gabba.

Earlier, No.6 Shaiman Anwar struck 106 and shared a record World Cup seventh-wicket stand of 107 with Amjad Javed (42 off 35) to help lift UAE from 6-131 to 9-278.

Ireland are now on track for a quarter-final berth after backing up their shock opening win over West Indies - thanks to a little luck.

Despite the tense finish, Irish eyes always appeared to be smiling on the Emerald Isle's team.

Opener Ed Joyce was bowled by Amjad Javed (3-60) on 17 with Ireland on 1-36, only for the bails to remain on the stumps.

Joyce looked back to see the LED lights-fitted bails flash when beaten by Javed then remarkably fall back into their groove.

Joyce's luck ran out on 37 when Javed had him caught behind, ending a crucial 68-run second wicket stand that set up Ireland's chase.

They stumbled at 4-97 in the 26th over before all-rounder Kevin O'Brien's 25-ball 50 in a 72-run sixth-wicket stand with Wilson got the Irish in sight of a heart-stopping win.

Earlier, Anwar thrashed UAE's first World Cup and second ODI ton.

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Anwar celebrates his century in Brisbane // Getty Images

Anwar's knock is a UAE World Cup record highest score, eclipsing Saleem Raza's 84. He thrashed 10 fours and one six.

UAE, appearing at their first World Cup since 1996, fell just short of their record ODI team total of 7-285 posted in their opening four-wicket loss to Zimbabwe last week.

Paul Stirling (2-27) was the pick of the Irish bowlers.

"That's part of the game. I have seen it before but it has never happened to me before," Javed said of "bowling" Joyce.

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Joyce is 'bowled' at the Gabba - the bails stayed on // Fox Sports

"You could say we are unlucky but we dropped O'Brien (on 24) at a crucial time.

"If you do that you let the team take the game away from you - but the boys will learn from that."

On his record stand with Anwar, Javed said: "We played our natural game despite being six wickets down and just kept going ... then we were (scoring at) eight, 10 an over."

Man of the match Wilson was breathing easy after Ireland locked up back-to-back wins.

"I got them to the line but couldn't get them over it," he said.

"I did some serious pacing in the dressing room."

Ireland: William Porterfield (capt), Paul Stirling, Ed Joyce, Niall O'Brien, Andrew Balbirnie, Gary Wilson, Kevin O'Brien, John Mooney, Alex Cusack, Max Sorensen, George Dockrell.

UAE: Amjad Ali, Andri Raffaelo, Krishna Karate, Khurram Khan, Swapnil Patil, Shaiman Anwar, Rohan Mustafa, Amjad Javed, Mohammad Naveed (capt), Mohammad Tauqir, Manjula Guruge.