Ireland Chance of Next Year’s World Cup Takes A Toll

Ireland’s hope of partaking in next year’s T20 world cup seems to be in jeopardy as they lost their Wednesday’s game against Canada. They lost by 10 runs, finishing with 146-7 as against Canada’s 156-7.

The loss would be Ireland’s second out of the 4 matches they have played so far in the group stages. Ireland, which is in Group B, was first beaten by the host country, UAE, on Saturday the 19th. They had earlier beaten Hong Kong and later beat Oman. For Ireland to actualize its dream of being in the 2020 T20 world cup, they have to finish in the top 2 available spots, and they seem so far from doing it now, as they are currently ranked at the 4th position, in a group of seven.

Ireland played a fairly good game, although they could have played better, but they tried to lessen the gap Canada had over them. Boyd Rankin took two wickets for his country, out of the four they had. Gary Wilson and Stuart Thompson are two players of the Irish side who tried to turn the game around to their country’s favor, but they just could not stop Canada from claiming victory.

Following the win, Canada topped the Group B table but were moved to second place following their Thursday’s loss against Hong Kong, who won by more than 32 runs. Oman currently leads the Group B table, even though they are tied with Canada at 6 points.

Ireland still has a chance to redeem themselves as they still have two matches left. They have a Friday game against Jersey and one on Saturday against Nigeria, who has so far managed to gain zero points, having lost all their games. Ireland has to win and win impressively in order to have a spot in the top 3, as that gives them the opportunity of qualifying for the world cup directly (if they are at the top position) or playing the Qualifying Play-Offs 1 and 2 ( if they are second or third in the group).

Written by: Leon Osamo