Ireland beat Canada by five wickets to clinch a place in the final of the ICC World Cricket League as they attempt to defend their Division One title.

Kevin O'Brien played an integral part in Ireland's fourth successive win, claiming two wickets before hitting an unbeaten 43 as his side eased to victory at Amstelveen.

The Canadians won the toss and chose to bat first but they made the worst possible start when Hiral Patel was bowled by O'Brien without a run on the board.

They were then reduced to six for two when Rizwan Cheema was bowled by Trent Johnston before stability was restored with a stand of 64 by Geoff Barnett and Nitish Kumar, with the former then dismissed for 26.

Kumar was Canada's fourth batsman to go and his innings of 38 proved to be his side's top score as they reached 154 for nine from their full 50 overs.

O'Brien returned figures of two for 21 with George Dockrell and Andrew White also took two wickets apiece.

Ireland then set about their target with Paul Stirling and Andrew Balbirnie putting on 50 for the first wicket, before Balbirnie was dismissed for 17.

Andrew Poynter was lbw for a duck as Parth Desai took the first of his three wickets, with Stirling his second victim with just one more run on the board as three Irish wickets fell for just five runs.

Rory McCann (six) was lbw and when Andrew White became Desai's third victim Ireland were 92 for five.

However, O'Brien and John Mooney stood firm, their stand of 63 guiding Ireland to victory with 10.5 overs to spare as they finished unbeaten on 43 and 44 respectively.

Desai's performance resulted in figures of three for 35.

Ireland will play Holland on Friday in their final group game, before taking on Scotland or Afghanistan in Saturday's final.