Pakistan’s lackluster T20 world cup campaign has officially come to an end as the match between Ireland and USA scheduled to start earlier Friday is marred with continuous rainfall and a very wet outfield, delaying the toss and commencement of play, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.
The only chance Pakistan had of qualifying for the Super-8s was for the Ireland-US game to be played with Ireland winning. Now that the game is most likely to be washed out, points will be shared, allowing the US to qualify with India already having qualified with just one group stage match to play against Canada tomorrow.
Pakistan will still have to play their final match against Ireland on Sunday but the game is of no consequence as both teams will be out of the contest as India and US will have progressed to the Super-8s with a significant lead over all other teams in the points table.
Pakistan lost both its opening games against US and India in abysmal fashion. The green-shirts beat Canada and it was crucial for Ireland to beat the US today (Friday) and then Pakistan to win their match on Sunday against Ireland. Neither outcome seems likely anymore.
On their return, PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi has already called for major ‘surgery’ of the entire team with at least seven players on the chopping block as of now.