Lorcan Tucker had a couple of reasons to be cheerful on the four-hour bus journey from Colombo to Kandy over the weekend, where Ireland will play Zimbabwe in what will probably be their final game at the T20 World Cup.

Firstly, the stand-in skipper’s superbly-paced 94 not out helped deliver a massive 96-run over Oman on Saturday which got Ireland’s nett run rate into positive territory, and secondly Josh Little roared back to form with the ball.

Long odds, maybe, but there is still a pathway into the last eight for the Boys in Green that requires four results to go their way.

The hosts need to defeat Australia in Kandy tonight, Zimbabwe must lose their final two games to Ireland tomorrow (TUES) and Sri Lanka, and then the final match in Group B will have to fall victim to the weather, denying the Aussies their inevitable win against small fish Oman.

An improbable four-timer, but only the last leg is unlikely.

Little’s return of 3-16 from four quality overs against Oman was exactly the reaction his team would have been hoping for after the left-arm speedster was overlooked for the first two matches of the tournament.

The 26-year-old has gone off the boil since winning a mega-bucks IPL contract off the back of his performances at the 2022 T20 World Cup but when he gets it right, as he did on Saturday, he is still Ireland’s most potent weapon.

The perceived wisdom is that Little doesn’t play enough, and needs more overs in his legs to improve his bowling fitness and consistency, so the news that he wants to feature in the Test match against New Zealand in Belfast at the end of May is encouraging.

“I’ve made myself available,” he confirmed. 

“I’ve not played much first-class cricket, my last red ball game could have been in 2019, but even getting involved, providing some knowledge to the lads around bowling in general, [would be good].

“Whether I play or not, it’s not up to me, but I’d love to be around that set-up.”