England 174-4 England can virtually wrap up their third International Youth Tournament title in succession today after sending Ireland crashing to their first defeat at Wellington Oval.

England moved into second place, a point ahead of Ireland in the standings following yesterday's six-wicket triumph and the match that will all but settle the championship takes place at National Sports Club where long-time rivals England and Scotland clash.

Scotland lead the standings by a point over England who have two games remaining while Scotland play their final round robin match today.

A Scotland win would put them three points ahead of England on 10 points, leaving only Ireland to finish level with them; assuming Ireland can win their two remaining matches against Holland today and Denmark tomorrow.

That Denmark-Ireland is expected to decide the second spot for the Youth World Cup next year in South Africa when two teams advance. England have already qualified as a Test-playing nation.

However, it is the championship that both Scotland and England are chasing today at Nationals. Yesterday, England were clearly better than Ireland who could only manage 170 against some disciplined bowling.

Andrew Cousins was high man for Ireland with 28 off 60 balls while Mark Hutchinson's 27 came from 35 balls. Richard Logan claimed two for 11 from eight tight overs of medium-pace while leg-spinner Christopher Scholfield claimed two for 28 from 10 overs.

Ireland struck with their second delivery when Graham Napier was caught off Dwaynne McGerrigle. But a second-wicket stand of 131 in 28 overs between captain Robert Key and Michael Gough took England to the brink of victory as not even a 25-minute rain delay could slow them.

Key scored 75 while Gough contributed 45 as victory came with 11 overs remaining.

"To come back yesterday (tie against Holland) the way we did and continue it here is a great credit to the lads,'' said coach Geoff Arnold.

"We just said to them that because we won well today we mustn't ease up. We just have to go on and produce the same performance again tomorrow. We played good disciplined cricket today.'' Ireland manager Ian Johnston admits his team was not up to par. "We're just putting today down to a bad result,'' said Johnston. "If we play badly we don't expect to win.

"We batted badly, bowled badly and fielded badly and I hope that is out of our system now. We had a very good result against Scotland yesterday, we played very well, and perhaps today was just a reaction to that. I hope tomorrow we are back in the form we expect to be in.

"We only played as well as England allowed us to play. England are always favourites in this tournament.''