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Cricket

West Indies v Ireland live World T20 2012

West Indies v Ireland live World T20 2012

The fortune hangs in the balance for the two teams when West Indies take on Ireland in the last Group B match.

The fortune hangs in the balance for the two teams when West Indies take on Ireland in the last Group B match. The match will be played on Monday at the Premadasa Stadium.

For pre-tournament favorites, West Indies, they would not have expected or wanted to be in such a situation where a defeat to Ireland can send them packing.

But that is exactly the position they are in following their rain-marred defeat against Australia in the opening.

The bridge between the two teams can be gauged from the number of runs the sides scored against Australia.

While Ireland failed to get too many, West Indies bludgeoned their way to 191 and were favorites should the match have gone to the full 20 overs.

Ireland would do better by not fooling themselves into believing that currently they and West Indies stand at the same level.

Their own squad, weak as it is, has been laid low with stomach bugs and other problems that have taken down at least six players and a couple of coaching staff members.

The practice session today featured only a handful of players and the management is still unsure about its starting eleven.

Trent Johnston, the veteran all-rounder, could possibly be making his last appearance in a major ICC tournament.

West Indies, on the other hand, would be ruing the rain interruption but also must have realized their weak link in the match against Australia.

The bowlers failed to stem the flow of runs as 100 runs were leaked in just over nine overs.

Captain Darren Sammy was still hopeful that they would do better in the coming matches and drew more of the attention towards the batting heroics of Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels who both scored brisk half-centuries.

The match will start at 7.30pm local time.