West Indies will be England’s first Super Eight opponents, after rain prevented a result in Monday’s final ICC World Twenty20 Group B match against Ireland at the Premadasa Stadium.
The Irish were cruelly denied a chance to win through to face England at Pallekele on Thursday, as rain wiped out West Indies’ chase of 129 for six.
The Windies therefore qualify for the second stage, in second place behind Australia.
Both they and Ireland lost to Australia, but West Indies recorded a superior run rate in doing so.
Ireland’s workmanlike innings, on a rainy night in Colombo, was interrupted when bad weather first intervened after five overs - and reduced the contest at that stage to 19 per side.
Captain William Porterfield was already gone, for his second golden duck of the tournament to the first ball of the innings, when he could not stop a Fidel Edwards yorker disturbing middle-stump.
Put in after Darren Sammy won the toss, everyone else in the Ireland order from two to eight made double-figures - but none more than Niall O’Brien’s 25 in an innings which set the West Indies a near par target, before rain returned.
The weather did not relent, and Ireland were therefore knocked out.
Ireland skipper Will Porterfield bemoaned the stop-start nature of the game and said: “I think we’ve seen enough rain so far this year in England.
“It would have been nice to get out there and get a result
“It could have been interesting if we could have got some early wickets there
“It’s just not easy in this form of the game and to go back out and start against Narine was not easy.
“That was disappointing, it would have been nice to keep going when we were out there but you play against quality opposition you’ve got to be able to go out there and start at any stage.”
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