South Africa seal final automatic World Cup spot, with Ireland-Bangladesh washout

South Africa gave themselves a chance to qualify for the World Cup by beating the Netherlands before the washout between Ireland-Bangladesh confirmed their place

A washout of the first One Day International between Ireland and Bangladesh in Chelmsford on Tuesday put an end to Irish hopes of automatic qualification to the 2023 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup, and confirming the eight teams that have directly qualified.

With Ireland no longer in the running, South Africa joined New Zealand, England, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Australia, and Afghanistan as the teams sealed automatic qualification spots.
The most recent changes in the race for automatic spots had come after Sri Lanka’s unsuccessful series against New Zealand, and South Africa’s two recent wins over the Netherlands in a home series.

South Africa had given themselves every chance of qualifying automatically for this year’s ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup in their final series against Netherlands at home.
The series victory moved the Proteas past the West Indies and into the eighth and final spot on the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Super League standings. But their chances for automatic qualification still hinged on Ireland’s ODIs against Bangladesh.

A 3-0 series victory for Ireland would have brought them level on points with South Africa, assuming they incurred no penalty points.

The net run rate would still have come into play to decide the final spot, but with Ireland’s first ODI against Bangladesh abandoned, this is no longer a worry for the Proteas, who have now booked their spot in the World Cup.

Ireland, meanwhile, will have to play the Qualifiers in Zimbabwe in June. Zimbabwe and Netherlands finished bottom of the Super League table and will head straight to the Qualifier. Scotland, Oman and Nepal finished in the top three of League 2 and booked their place in the World Cup Qualifier.

Nepal finished top three in dramatic fashion, winning 11 of their last 12 matches, overtaking Namibia to finish third in an incredible comeback story.

After disappointing League 2 campaigns, USA and UAE bounced back in the Qualifier Play-off in April, ensuring their top-two finishes on the penultimate day of the competition.

(with ICC inputs)