Tuesday was the day that South Africa received direct qualifying for the 50-over Cricket World Cup, which will be held in India later this year. This came about as a consequence of the first one-day international between Ireland and Bangladesh ending in a no-result washout.
In order to move up from 11th position in the points standings, Ireland needed to win all three of their matches against Bangladesh during a series that took place in Chelmsford, which is the county seat of the English county Essex. Bangladesh was playing in the series.
Even if Ireland were to win the series by a score of 2-0 at this point, they still would not be able to go ahead of South Africa in the World Cup Super League (WCSL) standings. Ireland will now be required to take part in the qualification event that will take place in Zimbabwe between June 18 and July 9 and will also include past tournament champions West Indies and Sri Lanka.
When play was stopped due to bad weather and light at 4:34 p.m. local time (15:34 GMT), the Irish were in the 17th over in their pursuit of Bangladesh’s 246-9 total, which was made from a total of 50 overs.
According to the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern system for determining the winner in rain-interrupted matches, Ireland’s innings had to complete a minimum of 20 overs before a winner could be determined. However, at 1800 GMT, the match was called off because the umpires determined that the circumstances were too damp to continue play.
On a surface that was in decent condition, Bangladesh were only able to score what appeared to be a reasonable total. Ireland’s assault was led by Josh Little, who had just had a successful run in the Indian Premier League. Graham Hume and Mark Adair both took two wickets for Bangladesh.
Mushfiqur Rahim commemorated his 36th birthday by getting the highest run total for the Tigers with 61 in front of a crowd of over 3,000 people at Chelmsford, the majority of whom were fans from Bangladesh. Najmul Hossain Shanto made 44.
However, Ireland quickly found themselves in a difficult position when they were reduced to 27-2 with the loss of their seasoned opener Paul Stirling and their captain Andrew Balbirnie.
The next episode of the series will air on Friday. The top eight teams in the standings of the World Cup qualifying league (WCSL), which has been played over the course of the past three years, will earn berths in the World Cup.
The defending champions England, India, New Zealand, Australia, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan have already ensured their spots in the tournament.