If match between India and USA in Long Island is abandoned, game is up for Heinrich Malan’s side
Curtis Campher knows Ireland have performed poorly at the T20 World Cup. Photo: Sam Barnes/Sportsfile
While they swelter in the heat of Florida, the Ireland squad will have one eye on the weather 1,300 miles up the east coast today, knowing that rain in New York could spell the end of their spluttering T20 World Cup campaign.
India and the USA are joint top of Group A with two wins each and if their match on Long Island is abandoned for any reason, both sides will qualify for the Super Eight, and Ireland and Pakistan will be eliminated, along with Canada.
Ideally, India will hammer the hosts by a wide margin to give the Boys in Green a better chance of overhauling the USA’s net run rate – or certainly greatly narrowing the gap – when the two teams meet in Lauderhill on Friday.
A big victory for Ireland in that game would leave a winner-takes-all clash on Sunday against Pakistan, who got their first points on the board yesterday, beating Canada by seven wickets in New York.
“When you lose your first two games, it doesn’t really matter what the other teams are doing as you know you have to win those remaining two games convincingly to have a chance to get through,” all-rounder Curtis Campher said.
“We’re used to fighting uphill battles, so hopefully we can show what we’re made of because in the first two games we haven’t done that.”
