Womens T20 Qualifiers in Dublin

minitrue

Womens T20 World Cup Qualifier starts in Dublin on Tue 23rd July. Top 3 qualify for the March 2014 T20 World cup in Bangladesh (same time as the men's tournament). This was raised late from 1 so now Ireland would be seeded to be the 3rd side through!

http://www.cricketireland.ie/news/article/icc-announces-revised-schedule-for-icc-womens-world-twenty20-qualifier-2013

Ireland are in a group with Sri Lanka, Canada and Japan.

The other group features Pakistan, Netherlands, Thailand and Zimbabwe.

Tuesday, 23 July
Ireland v Japan (am), The Hills
Netherlands v Zimbabwe (am), YMCA
Sri Lanka v Canada (pm), The Hills
Pakistan v Thailand (pm), YMCA

Thursday, 25 July
Thailand v Netherlands (am), The Hills
Canada v Ireland (am), Merrion
Zimbabwe v Pakistan (pm), The Hills
Japan v Sri Lanka (pm) Merrion

Saturday, 27 July
Thailand v Zimbabwe (am) The Hills
Pakistan v Netherlands (am), Merrion
Japan v Canada (pm), The Hills
Ireland v Sri Lanka, (pm), Merrion

Monday, 29 July
Trophy semi-final 1: A1 v B2 (am), YMCA (broadcast match)
Trophy semi-final 2: A2 v B1 (pm), YMCA (broadcast match)
Shield semi-final 1: A3 v B4 (am), Malahide
Shield semi-final 1: A4 v B3 (pm), Malahide

Wednesday, 31 July
Trophy final (am), YMCA – both finalists progress to the ICC World Twenty20 2014 (broadcast match)
Trophy 3rd v 4th play-off (pm), YMCA – the winner progresses to the ICC World Twenty20 2014 (broadcast match)
Shield final (am), Malahide (or maybe Merrion)
Shield 7th v 8th play-off (pm), Malahide (or maybe Merrion)

(am) games begin at 10:00, (pm) start at 14:00

Post groups games flagged for Ireland on the basis of seeding. Win the group and we become B1 and play pm on the 29th. Win our game on the 29th and we play in the am final on the 31st (having already qualified). Fail to get into the top two of the group and we'll be off to Malahide on the 29th and 31st. Though the games on the 31st "in Malahide" may actually be in Merrion, they were originally scheduled to be until the re-arranging of the tournament structure after the change in the number of qualifiers, I'm suspecting the CI site has the change of venue wrong.

So huge games probably on the Saturday Vs Sri Lanka in Merrion @14:00, where a win should leave us hot favourites to win our semi-final and qualify early, on Monday 29th the first chance to actually secure qualification but unfortunately good odds it will go down to the wire with the final game in YMCA on the 31st being a winner takes all affair for the last place.

Of course if this spell of unIrish weather breaks we could well see games on the reserve days (all the blank days above along with the 1st August).

The semi-finals and finals ("broadcast match" above) will be streamed live at http://www.icc-cricket.com

With Ireland (probably) playing in Merrion, The Hills and YMCA, weekday and weekend, mornings and afternoons, little excuses for those in Dublin not to get out and support them for a few hours some day.

Or if those don't suit or you just want more, there is another Pakistan ODI on Friday in YMCA (10:45 start) and 3-way T20 warm up games between Canada, Thailand and Scotland tomorrow in Railway (Sandymount) and Friday in Civil Service (Phoenix Park) with 10:00, 13:30 and 17:00 starts (Scotland Vs Canada @5pm tomorrow, Canada Vs Thailand @ 17:00 on Friday).

Good luck Ladies! Hopefully you can make it and help encourage even more of the Blarney Army to travel for a double T20 World Cup experience.

Peadar06

I scored all those three warm up matches on the Friday

Scotland v Canada

Scotland v Thailand

Thailand v Canada

Peter

minitrue

Confirmed games on 31st are in Merrion NOT Malahide

HonalD

Nice win for the ladies, well done,

HonalD

Another comprehensive win for the ladies, one more step on the ladder.

Elro

Excellent win for the ladies today, much tougher game to come on Saturday against Sri Lanka though but at least they're already qualified. Speaking of Sri Lanka they had must have had a bit of an off day today, got Japan all out for 21 and then took ten whole balls to win the match.

riffmongous

Two bad losses the last few days, the gulf in class seems to be huge between us and the top teams.

minitrue

We were nearly in trouble there, the rain giving the Dutch a much better chance of chasing down Sri Lanka's reduced target (though it was still a tall order). As it stands though we have the expected game against the Dutch to secure the last spot. We will go through at least though on more wins if Wednesday's 14:00 start and Thursday are both washed out (which looks possible).

minitrue

Today was indeed washed out and tomorrow looks very very dodgy. Especially as they have half the final (SL Vs Pak) to play (first I'm sure). All those weeks of sun and no rain and as they get to the crunch of the tournament the traditional Irish cricket weather returns to leave only 1.5 of 4 games played on the final (non-reserve) day. And that one game finished was played in conditions which would normally never been deemed suitable for international cricket.

Congrats to Thailand though on murdering Zimbabwe, restricting them to 85 and then racing off to 48-0 off 7 before the umpires gave up leaving Thailand the victors by 25 runs D/L. They must be kicking themselves though they couldn't beat them in the group game and have given themselves a crack at the Irish and a qualifying place (presuming they failed to beat Sri Lanka).

minitrue

So the second half of the final was abandoned so Sri Lanka take the trophy on NRR with both teams having won all their games.

They continued to hang around in YMCA and seems they've declared they are going to attempt to start at 14:45 after a new toss (same result and the Dutch have stuck us in). The Rainfall Radar suggests they just might get a game in after all! The Dutch will be smiling and here's hoping the Irish are ready to perform.

Japan and Canada got to hang around Merrion and watch the rain keep missing the ground somehow ... and play stumpy, keepy-uppy, softball without a bat, some "discover ireland" board game, throw around an american football, dance and generally entertain themselves without having to all just resort to sitting inside watching the Ashes once it started.

Muddy patches on the adjacent used pitch (where the batters/bowlers had worn away the grass) ended up pushing the umpires health and safety buttons causing them to keep rechecking in another 30-60 minutes until they finally declared the obvious that they were unwilling to let any play happen. (And they are not allowed to switch to the mat which was the obvious choice if they wouldn't allow the play beside the soft patches).

Considering the conditions yesterday I really don't know how they didn't play, or how they didn't just call it off as soon as they arrived at the ground as it was painfully obvious there was no chance of anything improving in the high humidity and complete lack of sunshine. Seems to me the umpires both treated it like a (mens) Ashes Test and were just waiting for what seemed like the inevitable rain (that never came) to give them the final excuse.

Had to love the fine spirits of all the players though at the end of their tour. A bunch of the Japanese had been playing stumpy for a while (with their coach for plenty of it) when a few of the Canadians joined in to get us as close to the contest as we did. At one point there were about a dozen people playing stumpy in front of the changing rooms, split close to equally 3 ways between the Japanese and Canadian players and some Merrion youngsters.

Highlight of the day had to be while the Japanese alone were playing stumpy before anyone else joined in. Shot had been cruched away a good 30m+ pretty straight, over the fielders to deep mid-off where one of the Merrion teenagers was idling about on his own in the middle of nowhere, spotted the ball coming and snared it, only to discover the (4) Japanese fielders running over to him for a queue of high-5s. Not 100% but I think it was their coach he'd dismissed

HonalD

http://www.cricketireland.ie/news/article/joyce-leads-ireland-to-icc-world-twenty20-finals

Doesn't matter if it was 2 runs or 200, well done ladies on your performance at t tournament.