T20 World Cup 2026: Zimbabwe-Ireland washout extinguishes Aussie hopes of qualification

When Australia captain Mitchell Marsh was asked about his team’s hopes of making it through to the Super Eight after a demoralising loss against Sri Lanka on Monday, he mentioned ‘the luck of the Irish”. 

Australia had to hope for Zimbabwe to falter against both Ireland and Sri Lanka in its next two games before facing Oman in its last game with the hopes of overturning a Net Run Rate deficit. Unfortunately, the rain gods in Pallekele did not get the memo. 

The T20 World Cup 2026 Group-B encounter against Ireland being called off before the toss meant Zimbabwe accumulated enough points to join Sri Lanka in the final eight. As for Australia, it failed to qualify out of the group stage for the first time since 2009. 

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A nagging drizzle since the morning of the game meant the entire ground was covered long before the scheduled start time of 3pm local time. After an hour of nothingness, the ground staff made their way to the middle to peel off the covers while there was a very faint drizzle on. But, the hopes were short-lived as the exercise was done to run off standing water from the sheets rather than to prepare the surface for live action. On the sheets went just a few moments after. 

The grass banks of the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium, which were teeming with passionate Sri Lanka supporters just 18 hours ago, wore a desolate look. The 500-odd fans that were waiting patiently in the stands did not even need an umbrella for the drizzle. But in one of cricket’s mysterious idiosyncrasies, that was enough to prevent the contest from getting underway. 

There was a slight ray of hope when the outermost covers were being peeled off with an hour to go for the latest cut-off time, but that only proved to be a false dawn. Zimbabwe isn’t complaining. In fact, the travelling party immediately broke into celebration as soon as the customary handshakes began. Nor is Ireland, which had very little to gain out of the contest.

A downcast Australia, though, will have to complete the formalities against Oman and head back home without a semifinal appearance for the third successive edition since its 2021 triumph.

Published on Feb 17, 2026