Which of the four teams from Group B go through to the Super 10 phase of the ICC World Twenty20 2014 will be decided today but Ireland are clearly ahead of the rest as they face Netherlands at 3:30pm in Sylhet. With Zimbabwe taking on the United Arab Emirates earlier in the day at the Sylhet Divisional Stadium, the Irish will put to bed all probable equations if they defeat the Dutch.
Having won their two first-round games against Zimbabwe and UAE, Ireland are favourites to progress with four points and a healthy net run rate of +0.641.
Zimbabwe (+0.125) and Netherlands (+0.094) both have two points each with the former getting the better of the latter on Wednesday while the Dutch’s victory came against the UAE on March 17.
Bottom-side UAE are completely out of reckoning having suffered defeats in both of their games.
A win for either Zimbabwe or the Netherlands coupled with a defeat for Ireland will throw the group wide open, so Irish skipper William Porterfield stressed the importance of winning their final game and sealing a spot in the Super 10.
‘It is a must-win game for us and we have targeted three wins to go through to the next [stage]. We need two more points. So if we win [today] we go through to the Super 10,’ said Porterfield.
Ireland batsman Ed Joyce, who was also keeping tabs on the net run rate, expressed his relief with the convincing nature of the 21-run win (Duckworth/Lewis method) over the UAE on Wednesday.
‘We have obviously got four points and there is the chance that we could lose the last game. Netherlands could have four points, Zimbabwe could have four points. It was important to win well but also make a statement against our fellow associates that we are still top of the tree there. So it was good to get a relatively easy win,’ said Joyce.
‘It could come to run rate. We talked about it [and] made a conscious effort to increase the run rate.
‘If we do win our next game we will be in Chittagong so we’ll be looking forward to the next couple of days. We’ll be up against the big boys so we’ll hopefully be able to do that,’ he said.
The Group B winners will join 2010 ICC World T20 champions England, New Zealand, South Africa and Sri Lanka in Group 1 of the Super 10 with all the games scheduled to be held in Chittagong.
Ireland have gone about their business in the first round in some style although they received a minor scare in the previous game when in-form opener Paul Stirling was hit on the elbow while trying to execute a pull shot off a rising delivery from UAE’s Sharif Asadullah in the very first over.
Porterfield though swatted away any worries.
‘[There was] a precautionary X-ray [at a local hospital]. Everything came back clear so he’ll be fine [for the next game],’ said the Irish skipper.
Having lost both their T20 matches so far against Ireland, Dutch skipper Peter Borren, on the other hand, said that there will be little expectations upon them turn the table on the Irish.
‘Maybe the other teams have a few more expectations than us. I don’t think people really expected much from us. We’ve shown though in the first two games that we can play. We will relax and enjoy our cricket,’ said Borren.
-With New Age input
