Ireland raised for eliminator

At last we have a shoot-out. One of the flaws of this World Twenty20 has been the group-stage scheduling, which has cushioned the eight seeded teams by keeping them apart early on. If, say, England and India had played first up in Group A, then the loser's match against Afghanistan would have carried an extra edge, the knowledge that another slip would cause a catastrophic fall. Well, we have a situation like that now, with West Indies in no doubt that failure to beat Ireland will end their participation in the tournament.

Darren Sammy's side had been touted as one of the favourites but they were let down by their bowling and fielding in the D/L defeat against Australia. They will reflect, however, that making 191 when faced by the bowling of Shane Watson, Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins is about as good a start with the bat as they could have made and if Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels get going against Ireland, that should be enough.

As Shane Watson alluded after Australia had eased past Ireland in the first Group B game, the Associate side come with a bright green warning tag these days. West Indies are one of the teams that already knew to take them seriously: two years ago in Guyana, they dismissed Ireland for 68, a score that is still the second-lowest total in T20 internationals and the lowest at a World Twenty20. But when that humiliating loss for the underdogs was followed by a winner-takes-all encounter against England in their next match, Ireland's tenacity was only undermined by the rain. They'll need to beat a Full Member in T20I cricket for only the second time in order to reach the Super Eights.

Form guide

(completed matches, most recent first)

Ireland : LLLLW
West Indies: LWWLW