{"id":302573,"date":"2026-02-17T13:33:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T13:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/302573\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T13:33:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T13:33:07","slug":"ireland-bow-out-of-t20-world-cup-after-rain-washes-out-zimbabwe-game-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/302573\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland bow out of T20 World Cup after rain washes out Zimbabwe game \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ireland have been knocked out of the T20 World Cup after rain in Pallekele saw their must-win clash against Zimbabwe abandoned without a ball being bowled. <\/p>\n

Defeats to Sri Lanka and Australia combined with victory over Oman left Ireland needing a win on Tuesday to keep alive their slim hopes of progression from Group B. Had they beaten Zimbabwe and results elsewhere gone their way, it would be determined by net run rate who out of Ireland, Zimbabwe or Australia would join leaders Sri Lanka in moving on. <\/p>\n

However, heavy rain all morning saw players arrive to very wet conditions in Pallekele. Although the weather relented to the point where it was barely drizzling come the scheduled start time, the rain did not relent sufficiently to allow the ground to dry. <\/p>\n

At 5.30pm local time \u2013 two-and-a-half hours after the original start \u2013 the officials called the game off. <\/p>\n

Sharing of the points is a good result for Zimbabwe as they are guaranteed to progress. Australia, one of the favourites of the group prior to the competition alongside hosts Sri Lanka, crash out thanks in large part to a surprise defeat to Zimbabwe last week. <\/p>\n

Ireland won\u2019t be in action again until a scheduled Test match against New Zealand in May. The fixture is believed to have been organised for some time now but Cricket Ireland<\/a>, the sport\u2019s governing body, is yet to confirm dates for any match this summer. <\/p>\n

The delay on any fixture announcement is believed to be mostly down to ongoing discussions with India about a prospective visit at some point during the home season. Should the world\u2019s most popular team tack on a few fixtures in Ireland as part of their England tour, Cricket Ireland should make enough from the value of broadcast rights to fund pre-planned games against Bangladesh and Afghanistan. The New Zealand Test should happen regardless.<\/p>\n

Cricket Ireland were hopeful of playing four T20 internationals with India but more recent talks have focused on three matches being played in June. The Cricket Ireland board meets on Wednesday, albeit it remains unclear if India will have confirmed their position by then. The Test against New Zealand is expected to be confirmed later this week. <\/p>\n

The Ireland women\u2019s side will compete in their own T20 World Cup in June, travelling to England for matches. They are expected to return to action with a warm-up tri-series prior to the tournament. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland have been knocked out of the T20 World Cup after rain in Pallekele saw their must-win clash…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302574,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8756,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-302573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-cricket-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}