Ireland captain Paul Stirling’s side enjoyed no luck at the T20 World Cup. Photo: Sportsfile
THE last faint hope of Ireland progressing to the next stage of the T20 World Cup was extinguished by the rain in Florida yesterday as a soggy outfield at Lauderhill led to an abandoned game and sent the USA through to the Super Eight.
The Boys in Green were already in the beer garden of the Last Chance Saloon, needing to beat their hosts by a big margin in a bid to improve their nett run rate, and then see off Pakistan in their final Group A match tomorrow.
It was a tall order to begin with and while the forecasted storms stayed away during the morning, the squad arrived at the ground to see large puddles lying on the playing surface, the result of some heavy rainfall over the past two days.
Four pitch inspections later, a campaign that had promised so much in the lead up to the tournament was over, and Pakistan and Canada were also eliminated, as the USA claimed second place in the group behind India.
The inevitable inquest into where things went wrong should not be as damning as some in recent years, though.
Ireland were not expected to beat India and got caught on a lively pitch.
Had Paul Stirling won the toss and bowled that would have been a very different game.
The defeat by Canada was just one of those unfortunate things that can happen in T20s.