Rain puts West Indies through, Ireland out
24/9/12- Ireland
129-6 20 overs Vs West Indies- Match Abandoned @ Colombo
The West Indies have qualified for the Super 8 stage of
the ICC World Twenty20, after their game against Ireland was abandoned, which
therefore knocked their opponents out of the competition in the process. With
rain showers scheduled throughout the afternoon, Darren Sammy won the toss and
elected too field first. His decision looked to have proven correct when Fidel
Edwards bowled the Irish skipper Will Porterfield the first ball of the game. It
capped off a terrible tournament for the Warwickshire batsman, who was also out
first ball against Australia in their opening game of the tournament.
There was then a break for rain, and when the players
returned to the middle, Ireland struggled badly. They lost Ed Joyce and danger
man Paul Stirling in consecutive overs, and after putting on some sort of
recovery with Niall O’Brien, Surrey’s own Gary Wilson was caught behind off
Chris Gayle for 21.
The O’Brien brothers both chipped in, but failed to make
a big impact on the innings, and only thanks to a couple of big shots from
Trent Johnston and Nigel Jones, Ireland reached 129-6 off their 20 overs. A
score that was always going to be well below par.
However, heavy and persistent rain then came over the
ground, and at 6pm UK time, the game was abandoned, with the West Indies going
through to the next stage on Net Run Rate.
A disappointing end for Ireland, who couldn’t repeat
their previous success in World tournaments. They have plenty of experienced players,
and the top 6 have all had some experience in county cricket, so should be
performing better than they did. The West Indies haven’t reached their full
potential yet in the competition, as the game against Australia was also rain
affected, but if they do reach it, they will be hard to beat.
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