FLORENCE HALL, Trelawny — West Indies recovered from a disastrous start to beat ICC Associate team Ireland by 31 runs yesterday as the Trelawny Multi-Purpose Stadium leg of the Supreme Ventures Sports Betting Cricket Festival came to an end.

The West Indies, who won the toss and took first strike, made 143 for eight, as Ireland, who were expected to compete after beating Jamaica on Saturday, limped to 112 for seven after a poor start of their own.

West Indies coach Otis Gibson said he thinks the weekend was a success: “We came to play in the festival, but also to get some good match practice.”

The West Indies and Ireland will meet in the first round of the ICC T-20 World Championships in Guyana later this month and Gibson said while it is important to win the “first little battle, we are still without some of our top players”.

The Irish manager Roy Torrems told the Observer they were “very disappointed with the results, as we thought we had them in the first 10 overs, but gave it away”.

He said they had a lot to work on before the start of the ICC tournament, including “bowling at the death and our batting”.

West Indies, who brought in spinner Nikita Miller in place of Lionel Baker from the team that beat Canada a day earlier, got off to a poor start, losing openers Andre Fletcher and Shivnarine Chanderpaul with the score on seven and were 41 for four wickets midway the innings.

However, there was a middle order revival led by Narsingh Deonarine, who top scored with 40 off 32 balls and included three sixes and a four while sharing a 51-run fifth-wicket partnership with Wavell Hines, who made 21 before he was run out by a brilliant throw from Kevin O’Brien in the outfield.

Darren Sammy made a quickfire 26 off 15 balls, as the West Indies upped the tempo late in the innings to get a competitive score.

Earlier, veteran batsmen Shivnarine Chanderpual, who opened the innings for the second day, and Ramnaresh Sarwan both failed with the bat. Chanderpaul was bowled by Kevin O’Brien for one and Sarwan, who is coming back from a back injury, was out leg before wicket to Johnston for two.

Andre Fletcher did not get a chance to get going as he was out to a brilliant catch by Alex Cusack, who picked up the ball inches off the ground at extra cover with the batsman on seven.

The Guyanese Deonarine tried to increase the tempo in the 16th over when he hit Andrew White’s first two balls for successive sixes, but perished two balls later, caught in the deep by John Mooney, as he attempted a third six of the over after taking 16 runs off just four balls.

Trent Johnston took two wickets to lead the Ireland attack.