ireland narrowly missed out on reaching the quarter finals of the cricket world cup as they fell to a seven wicket loss against pakistan william porterfield had earlier struck his maiden world cup century and ireland were indebted to their captain as his 107 helped them post a modest 237 all out however, the 30 year old was outshone by sarfraz ahmed, whose unbeaten 101 led pakistan through to the next stage of competition on net run rate sarfraz ahmed of pakistan celebrates after reaching 100 runs against ireland  ireland players shake hands with their pakistani opponents following their world cup exit  ahmed's century helped secure a comfortable seven wicket win for pakistan  ireland's john mooney (left) reacts after bowling a wide delivery to pakistan's ahmed  pakistan's ahmed shehzad (left) and ahmed run between wickets during their cricket world cup match  wednesday, march 18   south africa v sri lanka   sydney  thursday, march 19   india v bangladesh   melbourne  friday, march 20   australia v pakistan   adelaide  saturday, march 21   new zealand v west indies   wellington  the sides’ had contrasting starts to the competition and it was associate side ireland that began the better of the two; with victories over the west indies and the uae pakistan however, were on the end of heavy defeats against bitter rivals india and the west indies and were facing increasing scrutiny over whether they were going to be able to seriously contend at this world cup but with the competition geared towards ensuring the ‘top eight’ teams make it through to the knockout stages of the competition, all the sides knew even as little three wins could see a team advance in hindsight the turning point in the tournament for ireland came against south africa, against whom they suffered a mammoth 201 run loss the match obliterated their net run rate ireland's ed joyce takes a catch to dismiss pakistan's shehzad for 63 runs  john mooney of ireland stands in the outfield as they attempted to beat pakistan in pool b  meanwhile, misbah ul haq, pakistan’s effervescent and immovable captain was slowly ensuring he continued to carry his side back to some respectability a shock 29 run (d/l) victory over south africa ensured the match against ireland would be a straight knockout, after the west indies guaranteed their safe passage to the quarter finals with an easy victory against the uae earlier in the day porterfield decided having runs on the board would be his side’s best chance of victory against the 1992 world cup champions, having won the toss admittedly the adelaide oval pitch did look every bit the ‘batting paradise’ shahid afradi called it and despite missing their leader with the ball mohammad irfan, pakistan had ireland in all sorts of trouble early on paul stirling went for three to world cup debutant ehsan adil as he tried to play across the line and was trapped lbw despite surviving an early scare after being dropped by shehzad on five, ed joyce failed to make the most of his reprieve as he top edged a wahab riaz delivery to umar akmal at short square cover on 11 spectators enjoy the atmosphere during the 2015 icc cricket world cup match at the adelaide oval  gary wilson of ireland survives a run out attempted during ireland's batting innings  pakistani players celebrate getting the wicket of william porterfield of ireland  umar, relieved of his keeping duties in the previous match against south africa, seemed rejuvenated and went on to become the joint record holder with four catches as a fielder but ireland’s innings centered around their captain who, in what may well be ireland’s final world cup match, played some of his best cricket of the tournament as he made his hundred as many batsmen do, poterfield rode his luck – including being dropped on 99 by keeper sarfraz and he scurried through for his century it took an impressive catch from afridi to finally dismiss the irish captain for 107 off the economical sohail khan the equation for pakistan was simple, win or tie against ireland and they would be through and sarfraz and shehzad’s 120 run first wicket partnership took them a large way towards their target though shehzad (63) and haris sohail (3) fell in quick succession, misbah steadied the ship and while the pakistan captain ended up being dismissed in the most peculiar way   as he stood so far back to an alex cusack delivery that he tread on his stumps, pakistan never looked in trouble porterfield (left) is congratulated by ireland team mate wilson after reaching 100 runs  ehsan adil (centre) celebrates  after successfully appealing for lbw to dismiss ireland's paul stirling  although it was a comfortable victory, the end was slightly marred by sarfraz’s insistence in obtaining his own personal milestone and rather than opting to take singles with umar, he waited for the opportunity to clear the field had ireland amassed a few more runs that dangerous strategy could have led a more serious issue for pakistan ireland may be returning home earlier then they has hoped at the beginning of the day but they will at least be able to do so in the knowledge that they defeated more test playing nations than england it’s unlikely to be of much comfort to the associate side with their future in the competition unknown but ireland along with the other associate sides – scotland, afghanistan and the uae – showed in the past four weeks that the world cup will truly miss them if the icc has its way pakistan's wicketkeeper  ahmed (left) watches as team mate shahid afridi (r) dives to stop a ball  pakistan's afridi catches out ireland's andrew balbirnie for just 18 runs during ireland's batting innings 
uae ireland adelaide west indies pakiston sarfraz ahmed's
pakiston cruise to seven wicket win over ireland in adelaide  ireland condemned to exit after sarfraz ahmed's unbeaten 101  they go out after west indies secure better run rate following uae win 