Thaindian News

Guyana, May 5 (IANS) England captain Paul Collingwood admitted rain played a part in their progress into the Super Eight stage of World Twenty20 Tuesday after they had a lucky escape against Ireland in their crucial league match.
The rain came to the rescue of England team a day after it conspired against them in their opening match against the West Indies.

Collingwood later asked for changes in the Duckworth-Lewis method in its current form as a means to determine rain-affected matches after the loss to the West Indies Sunday when England in one of their best batting displays in recent times posted a mammoth 191 runs.

In a must-win match against Ireland Tuesday, England could manage only 120 for eight on a difficult pitch but Ireland’s reply was halted twice as they reached 14 for one from 3.3 overs and when the 5 p.m. local time cut-off arrived, with five overs of their innings yet to be completed, a no-result was declared.

As a result, England progressed alongside group winners West Indies on a superior run rate.

“I guess the rain’s come around today at a time that’s got us through to the next stage,” Collingwood said. “It didn’t help us yesterday but today I guess it’s helped us a little bit.”

Collingwood said he had been satisfied with the target his side had set Ireland.

“We were pretty confident once we got up to 120. I think it was a 130 wicket and you’d have been really happy with that; 140 and you’d have been really confident of protecting that score,” Collingwood was quoted as saying in the British papers.

“It could have got quite close today. There was certainly a bit of turn out there and it was seaming around as well and a lot different to the wicket we played on the other day.”

Collingwood also praised Dublin-born England batsman Eoin Morgan who top-scored against his native country with 45 from 37, a day after hitting 55 from 35 against the West Indies.

“He’s a very versatile player. He’s got the power, he can play all the shots but he’s also got a good mind and that’s what you need in the middle order.

Ireland captain William Porterfield was the one who felt cheated by the rain this time round.

“If the rain hadn’t come, we were pretty confident chasing down 120 that we could knock it off. But it’s just one of those things,” Porterfield said.

“The attitude we took out into the field there was brilliant.

“We just want to get into Super Eights and beat the big teams in there. We came with our sights set on that, and showed glimpses in our performance that we could do that.”