KINGSTON, Jamaica (Reuters) — Shivnarine Chanderpaul struck an impressive unbeaten century as World Cup hosts West Indies beat surprise package Ireland by eight wickets in the final Group D match at Sabina Park yesterday.Ireland made 183 for eight in 48 overs after rain stopped play and under the Duckworth-Lewis rules West Indies were set a target of 190 which they knocked off comfortably with 9.5 overs to spare.

With both teams having already secured their places in the Super Eights stage, the win allows Brian Lara’s men to carry two points into the next phase.

Chanderpaul’s sixth one-day century, his first in a World Cup, came in 108 balls and included 10 fours and four sixes.

He was rarely troubled by a harmless Irish attack on a good batting wicket but the Guyana-born opener showed the full range of his shots in an innings of controlled aggression.

After the hosts lost Chris Gayle early on for 18, Chanderpaul was well supported by Ramnaresh Sarwan (36) and Marlon Samuels (27 not out) as the hosts clocked up their third consecutive win in the competition.

Lara’s side will face a much tougher test on Tuesday though in Antigua when they come up against holders Australia in the opening Super Eights match.

It was a sobering game for Ireland who were second best throughout the contest — struggling with the bat against the combination of pace and spin offered by the West Indian bowling attack and then unable to penetrate with the ball.

Although the Irish, without their injured Australian-born captain Trent Johnston, took a lap of honour at the end of the game to applaud their supporters it will be the memory of their exciting tie with Zimbabwe and shock victory over Pakistan that motivated the applause.

West Indies captain Brian Lara said he was pleased with the consistency shown by his side.

The Windies have suffered dramatic shifts in form over the past two years and were bowled out for 85 by India in a warm-up game on the eve of the tournament but they were untroubled by the Irish as they followed up their wins over Pakistan and Zimbabwe.

“We have played solid cricket throughout the three games. We have been very consistent, we are building as we head into the big games,” he told reporters.

But Lara said he wanted to see more initiative from his batsmen in the next stage.

“I am really comfortable with the guys in the field, we just need to up the ante when we have the bat in hand,” he said.

“But we are picking up the momentum and we know we are going to face a different class of opponents on Tuesday,” added Lara, who did not bat against the Irish.

“It is good for us that all of our batsmen have been able to get good hits in whereas some of the teams haven’t used all their guys in their games,” he added.

The highlight of Ireland’s day was another aggressive innings from their Australian-born opening batsman Jeremy Bray who struck his side’s top score of 41.

But once Bray had gone, driving Jerome Taylor straight to sub-fielder Lendl Simmons, Ireland were in trouble at 82 for four.

West Indian all-rounder Dwayne Bravo took two wickets in two balls towards the end.

The reply was all about Chanderpaul who showed no mercy - crashing four consecutive fours off Boyd Rankin’s fifth over.