Afghanistan vs Ireland match has been abandoned without a bowl balled due to rain at the MCG on Friday (28 Oct), Both teams share one point each.
It was winless Afghanistan’s second wash-out in the Super 12’s after their New Zealand game at Melbourne was abandoned due to poor weather on Wednesday.
The no-result left Ireland second in Group 1 on three points after three matches behind leading New Zealand, though the Black Caps have a game in hand. Afghanistan remains bottom of the Group on two points.
The weather could yet shape the group, with fifth-placed Australia and fourth-placed England, each on two points, scheduled to play the late match at the MCG.
Ireland skipper Andrew Balbarnie said, “Very disappointing. We played some really good cricket the other night and were looking forward to this fixture against the team we know really well. If it could have gone our way, we could have gone to Brisbane with a lot of hopes of going into the next round, can’t do anything about the weather and we just have two more games to try and do our best to get to the semis. We didn’t our back our performance after the West Indies game, we spoke a lot about it after the England game about backing up that performance and coming out here and playing some good cricket, we didn’t get to show what we could do today unfortunately, but we get a crack at the defending champions in Brisbane. We will fly out tomorrow and get used to the conditions. It’s like going to a different country the way the weather has been out there and we look forward having a bit of sun on our back. We will have a good session on Sunday and focus on what we can do to try and knock Australia off their perch. You never know what’s gonna happen in this competition with the rain and stuff and NRR, essentially we gotta win games against two of the best teams in the world and if we can put our best feet forward and try to do that, who knows what can happen. Lot of coverage back home about the results and how big it was to do it at a special venue (win against England) and that’s why you play the game – you play the game to get people buzzing back home for the sport and hopefully we can continue to do that.”
Afghanistan skipper Mohammad Nabi said, “Very disappointed to be not playing at such an amazing ground. Me and Rash (Rashid) played a lot of BBL games here, but most of the players are waiting to play here.. But it’s not in our hands and we look forward to the upcoming games. The preparation was really good, we learned a lot from our first game against England and worked on our particular mistakes. We were fully ready for these 2 games, but unfortunately we did not get to play. The plan was to put score on the board and bring the spinners into the game during the chase, in the first game also we did few mistakes which is why we couldn’t get to the 140-150 score. We watched last 2 games, it was a close game between Zimbabwe and Pakistan. Zimbabwe played really well and fought till the last ball, all the teams are trying to win some games in the World Cup. From last five years we (me and Rashid) played Big Bash here and we share all the experience with our team members and also talk about how to bat and bowl in Australia. Use the bigger boundaries as a bowler, and as a batsman you can’t wait for the ball, you hit the ball here and you need to take that attacking approach as a batsman.”
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