Nicholas Pooran: WI skipper gets teary-eyed after two-time champions face a shocking defeat against Ireland

Nicholas Pooran: West Indies, a two-time winner, were shockingly eliminated from the 2022 T20 Cricket World Cup after losing to Ireland. For both sides, it was a game they had to win, and WI entered the match as clear favourites. Ireland pulled off a surprise and easily chased down the aim of 147 to advance to the second phase. They have a history of shocking teams in ICC competitions.

Nicholas Pooran, the captain of the West Indies, acknowledged after the loss that the target of 146 was insufficient. Additionally, he highlighted several advantages of WI's performance and said:  "It's tough, we haven't batted well in this tournament and didn't today either. Coming here and defending 145 was really difficult. Asking the bowlers to defend the total was really going to be a challenge. Congratulations to Ireland, I think they batted fantastically and bowled well."

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"There's a lot of positives Brandon King is batting well, Alzarri stepped up. But we are disappointed and have disappointed the fans back home. It is definitely hurting. I am definitely disappointed. We live to see another day."

WI's T20 World Cup campaign got off to a disappointing start as they were defeated by Scotland by a score of 42 runs. The islanders overcame Zimbabwe by 31 runs in their second game to maintain their aspirations. Between WI and Ireland, it was a "winner takes all" game, and Andre Balbirnie's team prevailed.

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West Indies chose to bat first, however they lost early wickets and their pace of scoring remained poor. No other hitter, with the exception of Brandon King (62* off 48), could even reach the 20-run mark.

In order to maintain their prospects, WI needed early wickets, but Ireland got off to a strong start thanks to the opening partnership of Paul Stirling and Balbirnie, who scored 73 runs in just 7.3 overs. Lorcan Tucker (45) joined Stirling (66 off 48) after the skipper was dismissed, and the two established a game-winning stand of 77 runs for the second wicket.

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