Irish fans walk by the covered ground before the cancelled T20 World Cup cricket match between Ireland and Zimbabwe in Pallekele, Sri Lanka today. Photo: AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena
Australia are out of the T20 World Cup after Zimbabwe’s decisive clash with Ireland in Pallekele was washed out.
The 2021 winners needed Ireland to beat Zimbabwe to stand a chance of qualifying from Group B behind leaders and tournament co-hosts Sri Lanka, but the game was abandoned without a ball being bowled because of persistent rain.
That proved bad news too for the Irish, who needed to beat Zimbabwe and then hope for Oman to pull off a miracle against Australia in their final fixture to progress.
Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka will now fight it out for top spot in the group when they meet in Colombo on Thursday, while Travis Head’s men end their campaign in ignominy back in Pallekele the following day.
Australia got off to a positive start when they beat Ireland by 67 runs, but back-to-back defeats to Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka – the latter by eight wickets and with two overs to spare – left their fate in the hands of others.
Ireland, who lost their opening fixture to Sri Lanka by 20 runs before going down to Australia, trounced Oman by 96 runs, but their hopes of reaching the Super 8s were ultimately dashed by the weather.