T20 World Cup: Ireland see off Bangladesh in final warm-up match

Gareth Delany starred with the bat for Ireland

Gareth Delany hit 88 off 50 balls as Ireland beat Bangladesh by 33 runs in Abu Dhabi in their final warm-up match before the Men's T20 World Cup.

Ireland elected to bat first and, stepping up after opener Paul Stirling was dismissed for 22, Delany was the star man to build a tally of 177.

Craig Young took two early wickets to leave Bangladesh on 15-3 on the return.

The win was capped when Mark Adair took his third wicket with the final ball to leave Bangladesh all out for 144.

After defeating Papa New Guinea by eight wickets on Monday, Ireland captain Andrew Balbirnie won the toss and elected to bat first.

• Balbirnie proves fitness as Ireland beat Papua New Guinea

Stirling was dismissed with the final ball of the third over for 22, and Balbirnie followed for 25 four overs later after being bowled by Taskin Ahmed to leave Ireland on 64-2.

George Dockrell was caught by Mahedi Hasan just before the halfway point of Ireland's innings, However Delany's superb 88, along with a solid partnership with Harry Tector on 23, put Ireland in control.

Ireland immediately set about dismantling Bangladesh's top order. Young claimed the wickets of Mohammad Naim (3) and Mushfiqur Rahim (4) either side of Josh Little's dismissal of Liton Das (1) to leave the Tigers struggling on just 15-3.

Soumya Sarkar's 37 started the response, although he was run out by Tector in the 11th over, shortly after Ben White taken the wicket of Afif Hossain.

In the 16th over, Adair struck twice in four balls to dismiss Mahedi Hasan (9) and Nurul Hassan (38) to put more pressure on Bangladesh, and the Irish bowler rounded out the game in style when he dispatched Mustafizur Rahman with the final ball of the game.

'We have acclimatised well'

Ireland begin their World Cup campaign against the Netherlands in the Abu Dhabi on Monday and Delany believes the players are now acclimatised to the warm conditions they will be facing in the tournament.

"I've found the going pretty tough so far on the slower wickets, but thankfully today there was a lot more pace which suits my game better. I was just happy to come off today and help to post a competitive score," he said.

"We've all acclimatised to the heat pretty well now - we've experienced training and playing at all stages of the day, so we're definitely more used to it. It does still take its toll in terms of fluid loss, so it's important we stay well hydrated."

"The group's confidence has definitely improved since the UAE series - we were all very disappointed in losing it, but we've put in two very strong performances with both the bat and the ball in these warm-up games. Hopefully we can continue our good form into the first game against the Dutch."

After the Dutch opener, the Irish face group favourites Sri Lanka two days later before taking on Namibia in Sharjah on 22 October.