South Africa qualify for 2023 World Cup

The first ODI between Ireland and Bangladesh came out as no result due to rain. The no result scenario has proved best for South Africa who have now qualified for the upcoming Men’s ODI World Cup 2023.

South Africa made it to the top eight teams that qualified for the Cricket World Cup by winning two matches against the Netherlands last month. But their place was threatened only by the Ireland team, if Ireland’s team defeats Bangladesh 3-0 in the ODI series played at home, it would have meant Ireland would have qualified for the World Cup 2023.

With this, South Africa had to play the World Cup qualifiers with the other 10 teams starting in Zimbabwe, out of which only 2 teams were going to leave for the World Cup 2023. However, the first ODI between Ireland and Bangladesh proved to be crucial in driving the fate of two teams.

Now the Irish cricket team will have to play a qualifier in Zimbabwe with the other 9 teams, in which a total of 34 matches will be played. Ireland, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, Oman, United States, United Arab Emirates, Scotland, Nepal and West Indies will take part in the 2023 Cricket World Cup Qualifier.

It All Started In January 2023

South Africa’s problem of going to the World Cup 2023 through qualifiers came to the fore when they decided not to play a three-match ODI series against Australia late last year.The main reason behind this was the participation of South African players in the local SA20 league at the same time, which started this year.

According to the ICC rules, Australia recieved walkover points and South Africa’s path to World Cup qualification became a bit difficult. But after that, South Africa’s performance in ODIs has been very good.

They beat England 2-1 in the home series. They did very well in front of the West Indies though that series was drawn as one match was canceled due to rain.

But in the two matches against the Netherlands a month ago, South Africa had to win because their path to qualification would be strengthened by that victory. But still their fate would have been in the hands of Ireland.

South Africa looked completely heavy over the Netherlands, the touring side losing the series 2-0 and after that the Proteas were hoping that Bangladesh would beat Ireland at least one match.

The first ODI between Ireland and Bangladesh was very important from the point of view of South Africa’s qualification. In this match played on Tuesday, Bangladesh had scored 246 runs on the board while batting first and Ireland had lost three wickets for 65 runs while chasing these runs but after that it rained and the match could not yield any result.

This meant that South Africa had made a direct entry into the World Cup 2023 and Ireland would now have to play qualifiers in Zimbabwe.