A first-day international draw between Ireland and Bangladesh saw South Africa propel Ireland into the automatic final World Cup spot.
Tuesday’s match at Chelmsford was abandoned due to rain with Ireland going 63-3 after 16.3 overs in response to Bangladesh’s 246-9.
Ireland needed to win this ODI series 3-0 to retain any hope of qualifying for the World Cup this way, but will still have one more chance.
Bangladesh is already qualified.
With two more World Cup berths in India later this year still to be determined, Ireland can still qualify for a 10-team qualifying tournament in June-July in Zimbabwe.
Other teams involved in qualifying include two former champions, Sri Lanka and West Indies.
The top spots in the 10-team World Cup go to the top eight in the WCSL, a competition that has been held for the past three years.
Cricket Ireland moved this week’s ODI matches from its own home venues to Essex in hopes of minimizing the potential impact of the weather, but saw its worst fears come true in heavy downpours.
Only 16.3 overs were possible in the second set, with a minimum of 20 needed to get a result over Duckworth Lewis Stern.
Left arm Josh Little, who returned from the Indian Premier League to take part in the series, took 3-61 on his return in Irish colours, including fly-half Litton Das and top scorer Mushfiqur Rahim.
Graham Hume excelled with numbers of 2-32 from his 10 overs and Mark Adair also claimed 2-44.
Bangladesh looked vulnerable halfway through but got off to a good start with the new ball, with dangerous Paul Stirling falling to Shoriful Islam for 15 and captain Andy Balbirnie played by Hasan Mahmud with just five to his name.
Stephen Doheny and Harry Tector then added 36 for the third wicket before the first was caught and knocked down by Taijul Islam just before the clouds opened.
Play never looked likely to resume and the result was confirmed shortly after 7:00 p.m. The second game will take place on the same ground on Friday.
