The event which is scheduled to take place between 16 October and 13 November next year will see a total of 45 matches hosted across Adelaide, Brisbane, Geelong, Hobart, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.

The ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 Final will be hosted under lights at the MCG on 13 November 2022.

The semi-finals will be hosted at the Sydney Cricket Ground and Adelaide Oval on 9 and 10 November, respectively.

Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 champions Australia and runner-up New Zealand plus Afghanistan, Bangladesh, England, India, Pakistan and South Africa as the next highest-ranked teams will gain direct entry into the Super 12 stage of the next instalment of the competition.

Namibia, Scotland, Sri Lanka and the West Indies will play in Round 1.

The four remaining spots at Australia 2022 will be filled via the ongoing qualification pathway, culminating in two global qualifying tournaments one to take place in Oman in February and the other in Zimbabwe in June/July.

Ireland will be among the teams aiming for a spot in the next World Cup after failing to get past the group stage of this year’s tournament.

For more information on the pathway click here.

Head of Events, Chris Tetley said: “We are looking forward to seeing the return of ICC events to Australia and are delighted to announce the seven host cities for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022. Following the success of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in 2020 and a two-year postponement, our sights are now firmly set on planning for the 2022 event in collaboration with the LOC.

“With 12 teams already confirmed in the line-up, we eagerly await the culmination of the qualification process to see which other teams will join them.”

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The series was played in preparation for the upcoming T20I World Cup – Ireland’s campaign begins on Monday, October 18 when they face the Netherlands.

The visitors batted first and started strongly but were reeled in by Rohan Mustafa, who encountered a purple patch.

The UAE did not look back after this and powered through to win by seven wickets with 23 balls remaining, with Muhammad Waseem registering a century for the side.

Ireland had started 76-0 before Mustafa brought his side back into it with the reliable duo of Paul Stirling and Kevin O’Brien.

The bowler started his tenure on the field by catching Stirling’s hit to send the Irishman walking after just three balls against Mustafa.

The stand ended in the 13th over at 85, the 12th partnership above 50 in T20Is between O’Brien and Stirling.

In men’s cricket, New Zealand’s Kane Williamson and Martin Guptill and Scotland’s George Munsey and Kyle Coetzer are the only pairs with as many, and no duo has more.

Mustafa bowled out Gareth Delany in the next over, setting the tone for a strong UAE comeback.

O’Brien brought up his half-century in the 15th over but he was the next to fall as Mustafa beat his attempted loft.

Curtis Campher began his at-bat inventively, playing a reverse lap sweep for four off his first ball.

However, that shot was Ireland’s sole boundary in the last 10 overs of their innings as their impressive start could not be sustained.

Waseem led his side to victory with an unbeaten 107 to seal a 3-0 series win for the hosts in Dubai.

Graham Ford’s side end the series without a win and will now face Papua New Guinea in a two-game warmup series before taking part in the T20I World Cup.

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The fixtures were officially announced by the Emirates Cricket Board this morning as part of the ‘DafaNews Summer T20 Blast’ – a series of fixtures between 5-10 October also involving UAE, Scotland, Namibia and Papua New Guinea.

Warm-up matches against Papua New Guinea and Bangladesh are also set to be played on October 12 and October 14 respectively.

The side’s T20I World Cup campaign is set to begin on October 18 against the Netherlands.

They most recently played a three-game One Day International series with Zimbabwe earlier this month.

Graham Ford and his squad will leave for the UAE tomorrow and will undertake a mandatory six-day hotel quarantine before being able to begin training.

A preliminary 18-player squad was recently announced – this will be reduced to 15 for the T20 World Cup tournament.

However, the three other players will still travel to the UAE as reserves.

Squad

Andrew Balbirnie (c), Mark Adair, Curtis Campher, Gareth Delany, George Dockrell, Shane Getkate, Graham Kennedy, Josh Little, Andrew McBrine, Barry McCarthy, Kevin O’Brien, Neil Rock, Simi Singh, Paul Stirling, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker, Ben White, Craig Young.

Fixtures

Pre-T20 World Cup – preparation period

• 5 October 2021: Ireland v Scotland – warm-up match (ICC Academy Oval 2; start 9am local time)
• 7 October 2021: Ireland v UAE – 1st T20I (ICC Academy Oval 1; start 9am local time)
• 8 October 2021: Ireland v UAE – 2nd T20I (ICC Academy Oval 1; start 9am local time)
• 10 October 2021: Ireland v UAE – 3rd T20I (ICC Academy Oval 1; start 9am local time)

Official T20 World Cup warm-up matches

• 12 October 2021: Ireland v Papua New Guinea – warm-up T20I (Abu Dhabi; start 2pm local time)
• 14 October 2021: Ireland v Bangladesh – warm-up T20I (Abu Dhabi; start 6pm local time)

T20 World Cup – Round 1

• 18 October 2021: Ireland v Netherlands (Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium, Abu Dhabi; starts 10am GMT)
• 20 October 2021: Ireland v Sri Lanka (Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium, Abu Dhabi; starts 2pm GMT)
• 22 October 2021: Ireland v Namibia (Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Sharjah; starts 10am GMT)

The post Ireland Confirm Warm-Up Games Before World Cup In October appeared first on SportsNewsIreland.

Zimbabwe took the fifth and final test in the final game of a series that was already decided to soften the blow of the setback.

Craig Ervine scored 67 for his side, achieving his third T20I half-century in an unbeaten fashion, to help Zimbabwe to their second triumph of the T20 games against Ireland.

However, the side started slowly with three batters being dismissed for single-digit scores – Mark Adair had another fruitful opener, taking two of the other and keeping Zimbabwe’s first batter, Tinashe Kamunhukamwe, scoreless.

Ervine and Wesley Madhevere steadied things for the Zimbabweans after their 3/2 start and got 31 runs between them before the latter fell to Josh Little.

Ervine stepped up to the plate and achieved his unbeaten 67 with the support of Dion Myers and Milton Shumba, who added 40 between them to propel their side to 124/4 at the end of their 20 overs.

Myers became Adair’s third and final wicket of the day after scoring 26 runs in 23 balls.

Ireland failed to get going in the first six overs with Kevin O’Brien, captain Andy Balbirnie, Player of the Series Paul Stirling and Harry Tector all walking inside six overs.

Despite his early exit, Stirling finished the game as Ireland’s second-highest scorer with 19 runs from 13 balls.

The man ahead of him on the scoring charts, Neil Rock, got Ireland 22 runs off 21 balls but the side allowed too many wickets.

Luke Jongwe and Donald Tiripano picked up three wickets each as they bowled Ireland out for 119 in 20 overs.

The two sides will face each other three more times this month in the form of One Day Internationals beginning on Wednesday, September 8.

However, the next T20I action for Ireland will be at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in October – their first fixture is a match against the Netherlands on October 18.

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