THE Euro T20 Slam, due to start on Friday, may have been postponed but it leaves next week open for the Women’s T20 World Cup qualifiers to take centre stage.

They are being played in Arbroath and Dundee and, here, Ireland have much stiffer competition to reach the finals in Australia with only two places up for grabs with eight teams involved.

Bangladesh are expected to take one of the last spots but although Ireland is the other Full Member, it is Thailand who have emerged as the favourites to reach the qualifying final after losing only one of their last 20 T20 games and winning the recent Quadrangular tournament in Holland.

Thailand defeated Laura Delany’s side twice in Deventer and are in Ireland’s group of four from which the top two reach the semi-finals. Ireland’s first match is against Namibia on Saturday.