World T20 2016 Day 4 Review : Both matches called off due to rain

The Oman v Netherlands as well as Bangladesh v Ireland game of the on-going World T20 2016 were washed out by rain today. Both Netherlands and Ireland needed to win their respective fixtures today in order to stay alive in the tournament. However, the rain gods turned out to be the decision makers and forced the both the matches to be abandoned.

The seventh match of the qualifier was crucial for Netherlands after having had a disappointing opening encounter against Bangladesh where they lost by an 8-run margin. The game was about their survival in the qualifiers. However, unfortunately for the Dutch, dark clouds were hovering over the heads and it was already raining at the venue.

After some time, the rains had stopped and there was a brief respite. The players had come out for the warm-ups. The toss happened and the Oman skipper Sultan Ahmed won the toss and opted to bowl first.

But, just minutes after it looked like the play would start, it started again. The wait continued and continued but the weather did not change, forcing the umpires to finally called-off the game after accessing the playing conditions.

The disappointment and grief in Dutch skipper Peter Borren was visible in the post match conference.

“There’s extreme disappointment. We’ve put in a lot of time, effort and energy in trying to qualify. For it to end like this after having lost to Bangladesh in a closely-fought game, we are gutted. We could done a lot of things better in that game, it will haunt us for a while. We don’t get a lot of opportunities at this stage. As someone says, our next chance could be in four years time.

Borren made a passionate plea once again on the need for Associate nations to get more chances at the international level. “For the Dutch team, we’ve got two more one-day games against Nepal in the World Cricket League and one more four-day game against Afghanistan. That is pretty much the schedule for the rest of the year. It’s three more games this year, which is Associate cricket in a nutshell,” he said.

“For the Dutch team, we’ve got two more one-day games against Nepal in the World Cricket League and one more four-day game against Afghanistan. That is pretty much the schedule for the rest of the year. It’s three more games this year, which is Associate cricket in a nutshell,” he said.

The same venue was also supposed to host the evening game between Bangladesh and Ireland. Ireland was also in a do-or –die situation and prayed for the rains to go away. However, their prayers went unheard as the rains continued to pour in short intervals.

The start was delayed by two hours. The game was reduced to a 12 overs a side game. Ireland captain William Porterfield chose to field in the must-win game.

The Bangla tigers got off to a blazing start as Tamim Iqbal and Soumya Sarkar clobbered the Irishmen. However, the Irish tasted the first success of the day just an over before the end of powerplay after Soumya Sarkar was stumped off the bowling of Andy McBriene.

They got another breakthrough couple of overs later after Tamim Iqbal, who was in a brutal mood today, was dismissed by left arm spinner George Dockrell. Unfortunately, their joy couldn’t last much longer as rains began to pour again and refused to stop this time. There was indeed a possibility of D/L method coming into play if rain had stopped. Owing to loss to time, Ireland would have been asked to chase 108 in 8 overs if the rain had stopped.

From a cricket lover’s perspective, it was a horrible day. The format of this World T20 had already been unsatisfying for a sect of experts and fans as it had limited the chances of associate nation meeting the Test playing nations. In addition to that, the team will have to return because of uncontrollable circumstances after having worked so hard for such event.