Ireland slipped into their familiar seats in the Last Chance Saloon in Hobart last night (MON) knowing that a demoralising 31-run loss to Zimbabwe at the Bellerive Oval has left their T20 World Cup campaign teetering on the edge of elimination.

The Boys in Green have not reached the final stage of a World T20 since 2009 and to break that run they will need to beat Scotland tomorrow (WEDS) and the West Indies in their final first round match on Friday.

If the first half of that ask sounds straightforward enough, please think again because Scotland despatched the men from the Caribbean by 42 runs in yesterday’s (MON) first match and are bubbling with confidence.

The manner of the old foes’ success, batting first and comfortably defending 160-5, a similar score to the one Namibia had made when upsetting Sri Lanka on Sunday, made Andy Balbirnie’s decision to field first more than perplexing.

“I can’t look back and regret that,” Balbirnie said. “We thought it was a good pitch and we expected it to be a good pitch all day. In hindsight it looks like the toss might have made a difference but we were pretty happy at the halfway stage.”

If that last phrase also raised a few eyebrows, Ireland were certainly happy enough at the halfway stage of the Zimbabwe innings.

Josh Little took a wicket with his second ball and another in his next over, Simi Singh had the dangerous Craig Ervine stumped and when veteran all-rounder Sean Williams fell to the final ball of the 10th, Zimbabwe were 79-4.

Ironically Williams, who was the batsman in the ‘did John Mooney’s foot touch the rope’ row on the same ground at the 2015 World Cup, was caught by a stunning relay catch on the boundary with Mark Adair offloading to Harry Tector before he crossed the line.

By that stage Sikandar Raza had already found his range with two sixes, though, and the in-form Zimbabwean added three more maximums before he was bowled by Adair for a match-defining 82 from 48 balls.

Despite Balbirnie’s brave words, Ireland’s only hope was if one of their gun batsman could match Raza but Paul Stirling played on second ball, Tector only lasted two more and at 22-4 in the fourth over there was no way back.

“When you get blown away, four wickets down like that, you're always up against it,” Balbirnie said. “It’s bitterly disappointing how we've started the competition but it's a pretty straightforward shootout now for us.”