New Zealand Maintain Top Spot, Ireland Rise to Fourth

So an upset and a washout. That’s Wednesday (October 26) for you from the 2022 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup being played in Australia. Both the matches scheduled for the day were impacted to different degrees – one more than the other.

In the first match, title favourites England were stunned as Ireland won by five runs (DLS) with the contest being affected by rain. After the toss, with the players all set for the game, inclement weather first forced the Irish innings to be delayed but thankfully, not significant enough so as to result in overs to be reduced.

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Once it resumed powered by Andre Balbirnie’s attacking half-century, Ireland made 157-all out in 19.2 overs. England would have felt a little unlucky that the contest ended prematurely giving them not a full chance to mount comeback but they had themselves to be behind the par score considering they were 86/5 at one stage and only managed to score 105/5 in 14.3 overs when the final interruption occurred giving Ireland a massive win.

The second game between New Zealand and Afghanistan didn’t even get the chance for a toss as rain continued to pelt the Melbourne Cricket Ground before the contest was abandoned without toss.

Group 1 Points Table Update after Wednesday’s Double-header

The group is now wide open after England’s defeat. Five teams have now at least one win against their names with Afghanistan being the only one to have not done so – thanks in part to the weather. Since the teams from the abandoned fixture shared a point each, it allowed Afghanistan to open their tally though.

With a point from the game, New Zealand continue to be at the top of the points table with three points and an excellent net run-rate of 4.450. Sri Lanka are second with two points and a NRR of 0.450.

England have slipped to the third spot with two points and a NRR of 0.239. Ireland have lifted themselves out of the last spot to fourth ahead of Australia (fifth) and Afghanistan (sixth).

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