Seventh heaven for Redmond

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Redmond, called into the Kiwi squad only this morning to replace the ill Jesse Ryder for the remainder of the tournament, made a mockery of the switch up from a scheduled season in the Bolton League to the World Twenty20 Super Eights.

The upshot, after Ireland had invited New Zealand to bat first on a sunny afternoon, was a total which was sure to stretch the batting capabilities of William Porterfield's hopefuls.

Redmond (63), last seen on the big stage in this country as a stodgy top-order batsman on New Zealand's Test tour 12 months ago, began his onslaught with off-side fours from the first two balls he faced off Peter Connell.

By the end of the next over, from Trent Johnston, Redmond was on 30 out of 32. But it was his opening partner Brendon McCullum who grabbed the glory associated with hitting the 100th six of the tournament, over midwicket off Kevin O'Brien. By then, medium-pacer O'Brien had bowled his first over - with the wicketkeeper standing up - for just one run.

Kyle McCallan added success to economy in his first over, McCullum driving straight into the hands of mid-off and only one run conceded this time.

But those two overs were conspicuously out of place with the stream of boundaries around them, and Redmond reached the seventh-fastest 50 in Twenty20 history when the second of two reverse-sweeps to the boundary off McCallan brought him his 11th four from only 23 balls.

Alex Cusack got Redmond lbw shuffling across his stumps, almost outside off, and aiming to leg. But Scott Styris and Martin Guptill lost little momentum in a 61-run third-wicket stand in under six overs, during which the former ought to have gone on 16 when Regan West missed a regulation return chance.

Styris eventually went to a tumbling catch by O'Brien at deep square-leg from a mistimed sweep off McCallan's off-spin, and Jacob Oram picked out deep cover with an attempted big hit at Cusack.

But the Kiwis still had enough in reserve, mainly in the shape of Guptill, to set Ireland's batsmen a major challenge.