An Irishman and New South Welshman walk into an oval.

And he – yes, he – scores a century that could take him to the world.

Welcome to the convoluted cricketing tale of dual citizen Nick Larkin.

He has played for and against one of his countries. And also played for his state and a territory in the past month.

Larkin’s breakthrough century for NSW on Monday not only gave the Blues a winning chance against South Australia in the Sheffield Shield match in Adelaide.

The ton could secure Larkin a spot for Ireland in the looming World Cup.

The elegant right-hander struck 130 and Scott Henry was 107 not out as the Blues (4-319) built a lead of 256 runs over SA at stumps on day three.

Larkin was born in Taree on NSW’s mid-north coast and has spent the past two Australian winters playing in Ireland on his Irish passport.

And he represented the Irish, eligible because of his Dublin-born grandfather, against Sri Lanka A in two limited overs fixtures in July.

“I had a few junior coaches who had been across to Ireland just randomly to play and they said I should go and maybe play a World Cup over there if I did well,” Larkin said after his maiden first-class century.

“When I finished uni and decided to do an overseas season, I was tossing up between Ireland and England. And the lure of playing international cricket was pretty tempting.”

To further complicate his story, Larkin last month played for the ACT – against Ireland.

He made the ACT team as part of a pathways program that allows cricketers born in regional NSW to play for the territory.

Larkin was then summoned into NSW’s Shield team and struck gold in Adelaide – making 78 in the first dig before Monday’s “really special” century.

The well-travelled batsman was uncertain what his feats could mean in terms of World Cup selection for Ireland.

Larkin was more focused on trying to keep his spot in the NSW team when the state’s Australian players return.

“I’m not really thinking about Ireland at the moment because I’m obviously in the middle of a season at home,” he said.

“I’m just hoping to play the next Shield game, if I’m lucky.”