Zimbabwe qualify for ‘Super Eight’: Australia out of T20 World Cup

Agency :

Rain has sealed Australia’s fate at the T20 World Cup with a washout on Tuesday between Zimbabwe and Ireland knocking Mitch Marsh’s men out of the tournament.

Zimbabwe needed just one point from the game to progress to the ‘Super Eight’ stage, and they got it courtesy of a dreary Kandy day as the grey skies set in mid-morning.

The Pallekele Stadium ground staff emerged about 55 minutes after the scheduled 3pm start time, working to remove surface water from the covers for the next 90 minutes before the skies darkened and they went back on for good, with the match abandoned without a ball bowled at 5.30pm local time.

The result confirms the African nation’s best ever finish at a men’s T20 World Cup after they finished bottom of their Super 12s group at the 2022 tournament in Australia after making it through the first round.

Australia’s players and staff could only watch out their hotel room windows some 10km from the ground as the rain failed to relent, with the No.2 ranked side eliminated from the ICC’s T20 showpiece without firing a shot.

It renders their final group game against Oman on Friday night a dead rubber with both teams already on their way out of the tournament, but Australia can only lose further from that should they finish a disastrous campaign with another sub-par performance.

Australia have now missed the semi-finals in the past three T20 World Cups but this is by far the 2021 champions’ worst result since 2009 when they last failed to reach the Super Eight following losses to West Indies and Sri Lanka.

Marsh lamented a lack of execution after being crushed by eight wickets at the hands of tournament co-hosts Sri Lanka the previous evening, unable to capitalise on the platform laid by himself and Travis Head at the top of the order.