West Indies through to super eight stage

COLOMBO (Reuters) - West Indies qualified for the Twenty20 World Cup super eight stage without winning a game after their final Group B match against Ireland was abandoned because of rain on Monday.

Ireland reached 129 for six after the match had been reduced to 19 overs a side before the rain returned. West Indies were then set a revised target of 44 from five overs but the teams were unable to take the field again.

Niall O'Brien top-scored with 25 runs as he shared a 33-run fourth-wicket partnership with Gary Wilson (21). But Chris Gayle dismissed both batsmen and finished with match figures of two for 21.

Ireland captain William Porterfield was dismissed off the first ball of the innings for the second time in the tournament when he was bowled by a swinging yorker from Fidel Edwards.

Pace bowler Ravi Rampaul and spinner Sunil Narine ended up with figures of one for 23 from three overs each.

West Indies have not had an opportunity to play a full game in the group stage as their match against Australia was also stopped by rain.

"The most important thing is we're through to the super eight and we're looking to improve our games. We didn't have a complete game," captain Darren Sammy told reporters.

Australia, who beat West Indies on the Duckworth-Lewis method in the other group match, had already qualified for the next stage.

West Indies will be in group one in the super eights along with hosts Sri Lanka, New Zealand and defending champions England. Sammy's team will play England on Thursday.

"Obviously, England are defending champions. We know we don't underestimate anybody, they won the tournament in Caribbean where the wickets also were assisting spinners. So we just have to go out there and bowl properly and execute our plans and hopefully our spinners will play a good role," Sammy said.

In group two, Australia, South Africa and India have already qualified with Pakistan and Bangladesh competing for the final place on Tuesday.

England in 2010 qualified for the super eights in similar fashion but they went on to win the title with five wins in a row.

"Yes, I'm aware of that. Probably history repeats itself but we are not really looking at that," Sammy said.

(Reporting by Ranga Sirilal; Writing by Shihar Aneez, editing by Ed Osmond)