NOTTINGHAM: Trent Johnston and the O’Brien brothers combined to help Ireland send Bangladesh crashing from the World Twenty20 here on Monday. Johnston, the burly Australian-born seamer, grabbed 3-20 in his opening spell with the new ball to restrict Bangladesh to a modest 137-8 after Ireland elected to bowl under an overcast Trent Bridge. The O’Brien brothers, Niall and Kevin, ensured the Irish did not falter when it mattered most with the bat to lead their side home with 10 balls to spare. Niall made 40 off 25 balls, while Kevin completed the easy win with an unbeaten 39 off 17 balls that included four boundaries and two sixes. Bangladesh, who had lost their opening game against defending champions India, return home with two defeats, while the Irish move into the Super Eight from group A along with India. Bangladesh, who needed to win the game to stay in the tournament, lost half their side by the 11th over with just 66 runs on the board. Opener Tamim Iqbal was the only frontline batsman to offer any semblence of resistence, making 22 before he was run out. Mashrafe Mortaza hit a quickfire 33 not out towards the end, including 20 runs in the last over from Alex Cusack, as the last three wickets added 71 valuable runs. “We won the toss, got early wickets and if you had said that we would restrict them to around 140 at the start, we would have been happy with that,” said Johnston. “I haven’t taken the new ball for a while but the conditions were conducive to swing bowling.” The Irish were sitting pretty at 61-1 in the 10th over when three wickets fell for 28 runs, including that of Niall O’Brien, who holed out against Shakib Al Hasan. Kevin O’Brien took charge after his brother’s dismissal, lofting Abdur Razzaq and Shakib for sixes, to help Ireland surpass the victory target of seven runs an over. England stay alive London: England kept their Twenty20 World Cup hopes alive after beating Pakistan by 48 runs at The Oval on Sunday. Kevin Pietersen struck 58 and Stuart Broad took 3-17 as England qualified for the Super Eight stage thanks to their superior run rate. “Our approach from the first ball was purposeful and that was the way we needed to bounce back,” said captain Paul Collingwood, referring to England’s shock defeat to the Netherlands in their opening match. Chasing 186 to win, Pakistan lost early wickets and fell well behind the required run rate. England struck an early blow when Ahmed Shehzad was caught for four by a tumbling Collingwood off Dimitri Mascarenhas in the third over. Kamran Akmal (six) then fell to Broad, caught at deep midwicket by Luke Wright and with the next ball he tempted Salman Butt into a foolish swipe that was easily caught by Ravi Bopara. At the halfway stage of the innings Pakistan needed 12 an over and they were dealt another blow when Shoaib Malik was caught behind by Foster off Wright. That brought the dangerous Shahid Afridi to the crease, but tight England bowling and fielding stifled the Pakistan batsmen. Afridi scored just five from 12 balls when he was caught by substitute fielder Eoin Morgan off Graeme Swann and Morgan then caught Misbah Ul-Haq off Anderson. Broad had Yasir Arafat caught by Wright with the last ball of the penultimate over and Pakistan closed on 137-7. Earlier England scored 185-5. Pietersen made a brilliant 58, but after reaching 100 in the 10th over, England’s run rate was curtailed by Pakistan’s bowlers in the second half of their innings. The hosts could have been dismissed for far less but for some terrible fielding by Pakistan, who dropped four catches. Pakistan must beat Netherlands convincingly at Lord’s on Tuesday to avoid elimination. — AP