When rain washed away Irish hopes

NEW DELHI: On Friday, Netherlands and Ireland suffered heartbreaks after rain dashed their hopes of making it to the main draw of the

ICC World T20

2016. Call it fate or plain bad luck, but nobody wants to be undone by something beyond their control after putting in the hard yards, especially when quite a lot is riding on these contests. Till date, 27 T20Is have been abandoned due to rain with 14 of them not even permitting the possibility of a toss. To say that the rain gods have been particularly unkind to Irish cricket team, at the big stage, won't be a stretch. Six of Ireland's 52 T20Is till date have been washed out - cruelly three of those knocking them out of ICC World T20s.

Here, TOI takes you through the four occasions when Irish cricket fans were left seething as rain spoiled their team's fate.

World T20 2010, 10th Match: England v Ireland (Group D)

England and Ireland's campaign had a rough start after both lost to West Indies in their opening match. The two met with the aim of avoiding an early exit at the Providence Stadium in Guyana and Ireland started well after inserting England in and restricting them to a manageable 120/8 in 20 overs. The pace duo of Boyd Rankin (2/25) and Trent Johnson (1/14) took the lead in putting up a superb performance with the ball. In their chase, Ireland lost the wicket of Paul Stirling in the second over to Ryan Sidebottom before the rain forced them to take cover. And it stayed that way, not allowing Ireland to continue their run-chase and helped England sneak through to the Super Eight on account of a superior run-rate. Irish were dumped and England recovered from their sloppy start to the tournament to eventually return home with the trophy.

World T20 2012, 11th Match: Ireland v West Indies (Group B)

For the second time in a row, Ireland were dumped out of WorldT20 by rain and an inferior run-rate. Having lost to Australia in their respective openers, Ireland and West Indies were in a must-win situation when they faced each other in a Group B match. Ireland were asked to bat first by West Indies skipper Darren Sammy and for the second successive time, their captain William Porterfield was dismissed off the first delivery of the match. Niall O'Brien top-scored for Ireland with 25 after rain interrupted the proceedings in the fifth over and the match was reduced to 19 overs per side when it finally resumed. West Indies were set 130 to win but couldn't go ahead with the chase due to persistent rain. No second innings was possible and consequently, on a superior run-rate, West Indies marched ahead for the Super Eight. Likewise England in 2010, they went on to win the championship in Sri Lanka.

World T20 2016, 8th Match: Bangladesh vs Ireland (Group A)

During the 2014 World T20, Ireland returned home after being trumped by the Netherlands in a freak qualifier following victories against Zimbabwe and United Arab Emirates. Rain decided to not have any say in their fate that time but the weather gods returned with vengeance in the next edition in India after their Group A fixture with Bangladesh was washed-out. Netherlands had already been knocked out earlier in the day as their match against Oman was called off after toss due to rain. Continuous rain in Dharamsala threatened to play spoilsport in the second match of the day between Bangladesh and Ireland before it finally relented for sometime. In the match reduced to 12 overs a side, Ireland opted to field and Tamim Iqbal (47) and Soumya Sarkar (20) gave Bangladesh a terrific start, racing away to 61 in 4.3 overs. After Ireland dismissed both the openers and with their opponents scoring at 11.75 runs per over and 24 deliveries remaining, rain returned, putting to rest Irish hopes of making it to the next round.

2008 ICC WT20 Qualifier (Final): Ireland v Netherlands

This washout didn't cost Ireland dear but they certainly would have felt a tinge of disappointment after being forced to share the 2008 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier trophy with the Netherlands. Having won both their two league games and then edging past Kenya in a low scoring semi-final, they were up against the Netherlands in the summit clash. The Dutch had lost one match in their run-up to the final. Ireland won the toss and chose to bowl but couldn't take field due to intermittent showers and finally had to remain satisfied after being announced as joint winners at Belfast.