ICC World Twenty20 2012 Qualifier Tournament

After defeating the Netherlands by seven wickets in Dubai, Ireland’s cricketers are just one win away from a final showdown with Afghanistan in the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier tournament.  

Getting to the final would also secure a place in the World Twenty20 2012 in Sri Lanka in September.  To get there, though, they need to beat Namibia, who lost to Afghanistan by 47 runs in an earlier preliminary final.

Namibia are also the only team to have defeated Ireland in the qualifying tournament to date.  That, however, was in their opening fixture.  And it was a narrow, 4 runs, defeat.  Since then Ireland have won all of their games.

The crunch game for Ireland is scheduled to start at 6am [GMT] tomorrow morning.

The winner will face Afghanistan at 2pm [GMT] later in the afternoon.  The qualifying tournment winner will go into a World Twenty20 2012 group with Australia and West Indies, the other in a group with England and India, for the tournment in Sri Lanka.  The two top teams from each of the four groups go on to the Super Eights stage.

Fingers crossed, then.

Update  Ireland comprehensively defeated Namibia and qualify for the ICC World Twenty20 tournament in Sri Lanka.

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