Having already booked their ticket to South Africa, Ireland's women were edged out by seven runs by Bangladesh in the final of the ICC Women's T20 World Cup qualifier at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.
After grinding out a win in nail-biting fashion against Zimbabwe on Friday, Ireland entered today's qualification tournament final, knowing that their principal task had already been achieved.
After losing the toss, Ireland were put in to bowl, captain Laura Delany (3-27), Cara Murray (2-21) and Arlene Kelly (2-17) emerging as the pick of the bunch in a respectable bowling effort.
Delaney's tally brought a half-century of wickets for the captain, only the second Irish player to achieve the feat after Eimear Richardson.
The Bangladeshi openers started cautiously with two runs from the first 10 balls, but the experienced Fargana Hoque Pinky soon after found her groove, hitting seven boundaries in an innings of 61 from 55 balls, anchoring the innings until she was finally dismissed in the 17th over.
However, by the midway point, the run-rate was relatively sluggish, when Joty fell for just 6 in the 10th over, the Bangladesh score was a pedestrian-looking 47-2.
Rumana Ahmed then joined Hoque and the pair put on a 49-run third wicket partnership off just 37 balls, finally broken when Ahmed skied a ball from Murray, caught by Waldron behind.
Hoque followed shortly after, and Ireland sensed an opening, finishing much the stronger side with the last 25 balls producing six wickets for just 24 runs – Delany's last over finished with a remarkable 3-3. Bangladesh posted an underwhelming tally of 120-8.
However, the Irish batters struggled in the face of the Bangladeshi bowling attack, their opponents bowling spin for all 20
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