England home and dry as rain washes out Ireland's Super Eight bid

ENGLAND scraped unimpressively through to the ICC World Twenty20 Super Eight stage after a rainy no-result to their Group D shoot-out with Ireland last night.

Paul Collingwood's team could muster only a vulnerable 120 for eight on an awkward pitch, after being asked to bat first at the Guyana National Stadium. But after Ireland had started and had to stop their reply twice and got as far as 14 for one from 3.3 overs, the 5pm local time cut-off was reached.

International Cricket Council rules stipulate that five overs of a second innings must be completed to constitute a Duckworth-Lewis result – and since that was not possible, England progress alongside group winners West Indies thanks to a far superior run rate.

England were indebted to their Dublin-born middle-order batsman Eoin Morgan's 45 for helping them set a moderately testing target

They stuttered to 49 for four at the midway point of their innings, as Trent Johnston and George Dockrell exploited the conditions with miserly spells.

But Morgan kept his head, initially again in company with Luke Wright, and cashed in at the death with some typically inventive and well-placed shots.

Even he eventually picked out a deep fielder to go in the final over, leaving Ireland's batsmen the task of finishing what their bowlers started – something they singularly failed to do when they were bowled out for only 68 by the West Indies.

After the second of two false starts to the Ireland innings, Paul Stirling pulled Ryan Sidebottom to the deep midwicket boundary only to fall for a duck to a diving catch by Lumb.

The possibility remained that Ireland could return to outsprint England to a revised total, with Niall O'Brien and William Porterfield in situ.

They were presented with an updated equation of 61 required from nine overs.

In the end, though, rain robbed them of a shot at that feasible target.

Meanwhile, New Zealand were indebted to the performance of Nathan McCullum and Scott Styris following his side's victory over Zimbabwe in their Group B clash.

Zimbabwe had made a good start batting first to reach 58 for one in the seventh over.

But the bowling of man-of-the match McCullum (three for 16) and Styris (three for five) saw them lose their last nine wickets for just 26 runs, falling to 84 all out.

Rain then forced the players off with New Zealand on 36 for one after 8.1 overs in reply, and with the weather not abating the Black Caps were winners by seven runs under the Duckworth-Lewis method.