For a long time it looked like the rain that has so often cost Scotland in the past might actually do them a favour. Extremely heavy rain at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua where England were due to take on Namibia threatened to wash out the match, rendering the result of Scotland's contest against Australia in St Lucia academic.

Some on social media were writing post-mortems of England's performance. Some were talking about how embarassing it was to be knocked out by Scotland.

But the rain eventually relented enough to allow an 11 over contest with England opting to bat first after winning the toss. Phil Salt and Jos Buttler were dismissed early by David Wiese and Ruben Trumpelmann respectively but some big hitting from Jonny Bairstow (31 from 18 balls) and Harry Brook (47 not out from 20) put England on the front foot.

The rain breifly returned to reduce the game to a ten over match, which crucially robbed Namibia of a death over to be bowled by Wiese who had bowled two overs at the start expecting to be able to bowl a third at the end. Even he might not have been able to prevent a big England total though, and 122-5 is a very good score for a ten over innings.

DLS adjusted that to a 126 target for Namibia and their openers struggled to get on top of the rate. Niko Davin retired out after the sixth over to get the big hitting Wiese in, and he hit some lusty blows as he scored 27 from 12 balls, but it wasn't enough.

Michael van Lingen contributed 33 from 29 as Namibia made 84-3, losing by 41 runs. On Wiese's dismissal, several England players shook his hand, as did his teammates and it was later announced that this was his last game in international cricket, the next World Cup in 2026 being too far away for the 39 year old. Namibia will have been greatful for his service in and amongst his franchise commitments over the last few years.

To St Lucia then, where Scotland now knew that they had to beat Australia to advance. And they so very nearly pulled it off. Brandon McMullen smashed 60 from 34 balls, George Munsey scored 35 from 23 and Richie Berrington an unbeaten 42 from 31 balls as Scotland racked up 180-5 from their 20 overs.

Travis Head dominated the earlier parts of Australia's reply with 68 from 49 balls and had scored almost half of Australia's 140 runs when he was the fourth man out in the 16th over. Marcus Stoinis clubbed 59 from 29 balls before he was bowled by Mark Watt to end the 17th over.

Australia needed 26 from the last three overs at this point, so the pressure was very much on. Tim David hit two fours - and there were four leg-byes - in the 18th over and Australia needed 13 from 12. Safyaan Sharif conceded 8 from it.

Five needed then, and the last over started with two singles. Tim David hit a ball towards midwicket. Chris Sole came round to try and catch it but dropped it, with the batters managing to run two to bring the scores level. Tim David then punished the drop even more by hitting the next delivery for six to secure a five wicket win and knock Scotland out.

Disappointment for Scotland then, but they will head home proud. They came close to topping a group that included Australia and England.

Another benficiary of their elimination could well be the Irish. If, as seems likely, Bangladesh progress to the Super Eights, Ireland will sneak into the next T20 World Cup by viirtue of their T20I ranking. Scotland, despite clearly performing better than their old rivals, will have to play the regional qualifiers. Cricket can be such an unfair game.