Wicketkeeper Lorcan Tucker says Ireland have not given up hope of making the Super 8s at the 2026 T20 World Cup despite losing their opening two group games.
A 20-run loss to Sri Lanka was followed on Wednesday by a 67-run defeat at the hands of Australia in Colombo to leave Ireland in a precarious position.
The Aussies posted 182-6 and, after losing captain Paul Stirling to injury, Ireland slumped to 115 all out in reply.
Heinrich Malan’s side need to win their final two Group B matches – against Zimbabwe and Oman on Saturday and Tuesday respectively – and for results elsewhere to go their way to finish in the top two qualifying spots.
“There’s still plenty that can happen – we just have to stay competitive, stay keen and we’re not out of this yet,” said Tucker, who made 24 and stood in as captain after Stirling’s retirement.
“We just have to make sure we rock up for the next game and put in a really positive performance. I think we didn’t start the game the way we would have liked – Australia got away from us in the powerplay.
“Our spinners made a great effort to pull it back, but ultimately they finished off really well before we lost wickets in our own powerplay. We got off to a pretty poor start.”
Stirling took a brilliant catch to dismiss Josh Inglis but it proved costly for Ireland after the opener hobbled off after the first delivery of Ireland’s reply.
“I think he just took a knock on his knee taking the catch – he tried to go out and see our innings off to a good start but he wasn’t able to unfortunately,” added Tucker.
“It was massively disappointing and I think after that it sort of set a train in motion. Hopefully he’ll be back for the next game.”
