- Ireland’s World Cup Hopes Damaged By Heavy Loss Against Sri Lanka.
Ireland’s lingering hopes of qualifying for the World Cup are over after they suffered a 133-run defeat by Sri Lanka in Zimbabwe.
Wanindu Hasaranga made it 16 wickets from three qualifiers with 5-79 as Group B leaders Sri Lanka moved through to the Super Six stage.
It was a third loss from three games in what has been a disappointing qualifier tournament for the Irish side.
They lost to Oman and Scotland in their opening group matches.
That left Ireland needing to beat the Sri Lankans on Sunday to maintain any chance of progressing.
However, all they have to play for now is aiming to avoid finishing bottom of Group B by beating current basement side United Arab Emirates when they meet in their last match on Tuesday.
A late rally by Ireland’s bowlers, led by Mark Adair with 4-46 and Barry McCarthy who took 3-56, gave them an outside chance as they bowled the Sri Lankans out for 325.
They began their response in a positive fashion with Andy McBrine hitting a few early fours but Hasaranga in particular proved too strong with the ball to condemn Ireland to their seventh consecutive ODI defeat.
Curtis Campher posted 39 runs and Harry Tector delivered 33 but the side led by Andrew Balbirnie never really looked like successfully chasing down their opponents’ total.
Ireland captain Balbirnie won the toss and elected to bowl first, with Barry McCarthy replacing Ben White as the only change to the Irish side that lost in dramatic fashion by one wicket to Scotland on Wednesday.
Sri Lanka made a strong start with the bat but McCarthy got Ireland off the mark when he removed Pathum Nissanka and Kusal Mendes with back-to-back deliveries.
Sri Lanka continued to accumulate runs and were on 121-2 after 20 overs, with the partnership between Dimuth Karunaratne and Sadeera Samarawickrama proving effective.
Karunaratne grabbed his century as his side moved to 230-3 after 37 overs before he was bowled by Adair on 103 as part of that late rally that Sri Lanka bowled out for 325 after 49.5 overs.
The leading three from each group at the qualifier tournament will advance to the Super Six stage, with the top two from the 10-team competition progressing to the World Cup in India later this year.
