Irish rescued by rain again

THE luck was with Ireland again yesterday when rain intervened to save them from defeat by Bangladesh and delivered another valuable point towards a place in the ICC Trophy semi-finals.

It was hardly fair on the Bangladeshis that a match they had controlled throughout and which would have assured them of a place in the last four was so cruelly snatched away by another timely rain storm.

But there was no excuse for the jostling of the two umpires when the game was quite properly called off, nor for the accusations of racism and caving in to pressure that quickly followed. When Ireland were bowled out for 129 and Bangladesh reached 23 without loss in reply it looked grim but, luckily, so did the weather and a heavy shower persisted for the best part of an hour to thoroughly soak the new Royal Selangor Club ground.

Desperate to complete their win and finish top of the group to avoid Kenya in the semi-finals, the Bangladesh side joined the mopping up process. It appeared their efforts had been worthwhile when, three hours later, the umpires deemed conditions fit to cram in the 20 overs that were necessary to get a result.

Mike Hendrick, the Ireland coach, also wants to avoid Kenya and told the same officials that without fielders being allowed to use spikes he considered wet patches square of the wicket to be dangerous. This point was illustrated when the second ball of the resumption was stopped by Neil Doak in a somewhat theatrical sliding dive.

And when the next delivery was guided into a puddle between the batsman and second slip they bravely accepted they had erred and abandoned the match.

As the players walked off, the Bangladeshi squad and around 50 of their supporters swarmed around the white umpires from Denmark and Namibia. Gordon Greenidge, their West Indian coach, claimed the officials had been conned by Doak, and some of his entourage went further and called the decision racist. The shared points means Ireland need only to avoid defeat in their last group match against Hong Kong tomorrow to make the semi-finals while Bangladesh could yet go out to Holland.

Before being too critical, it is important to understand the weight of expectancy on the Bangladeshis and that the price of failing to qualify for the World Cup could be a bonfire party, not at your house, but in it.

It was to exploit such pressure that Ireland chose to bat first on a difficult pitch with the intention of posting enough runs to seriously worry the opposition batsmen.

But Bangladesh bowled superbly, restricting Decker Curry to, IS runs from 44 balls and giving, Alan Lewis what he later described as the toughest hour at the crease in his career.