In a quest to grab one of the top two slots, Zimbabwe and Ireland will meet on Friday, 16th March 2018. It is an important game for both the sides as the winner will be almost dictating terms as far as qualification for the main event is concerned. The loser, on the other hand, will have to rely on other team to a certain extent. While both teams will be particularly happy with the way they’ve done so far in the tournament, they weren’t throroughly dominant. Ireland lost to West Indies whereas Zimbabwe managed to escape with a tie against Scotland.
Zimbabwe
The approach of Cephas Zuwayo and Solomon Mire at the top of the order has been a lot like Romesh Kaluwitharna and Sanath Jayasuriya in 1996 WC. They’ve been at their attacking best and have often taken the game away in first 10-15 overs. On the flipside, however, whenever they’ve failed, Zimbabwe’s innings has appeared to stall.
Brendan Taylor and Hamilton Masakadza have been fluent so far and have ably backed up the flying start by the openers. Taylor, in particular, have scored heavily and the team as well as the fans will be looking upto him. Greame Cremer has led the team beautifully so far. Muzarbani will draw confidence from his performance against Scotland where he held his nerve to snatch the tie from the jaws of loss.
Overall, the Zimbabweans have done fairly well, but being the home team, they were expected to finish with eight points. They still have the upper hand as far as the qualification for WC ’19 is concerned and they’d like to maintain it that way.
Ireland
Ireland have been participating in the World Cups since 2007 and a loss here will be a huge blow to their contention. While a win here will put them in the driving seat, a loss a little less so. Their next two games aren’t going to be easy either. William Porterfield and Paul Stirling were brilliant in their last match, but haven’t been consistent enough. Their batting has depended a lot on Ed Joyce’s performance in the middle-order.
George Dockrell, Boyd Rankin and Tim Murtagh have been excellent so far. While Dockrell has tied up the batsmen well in the middle overs, Rankin and Murtagh have extracted the bouce and pace from the otherwise slow pitch. Getting ten overs out of their fifth bowlers has been a concern for them in the recent past and they’d expect more from Kevin O’ Brien especially with the kind of experience with him.
Ireland were one of the favorites to qualify for the World Cup. While their loss against West Indies wasn’t something to be surprised about, it has certainly put them in a spot of bother. They’ll need a win as badly as any other team in the contention and we expect them to come out all guns blazing.
Our Prediction
Both the teams are top candidates as far as qualification for the main round is concerned and a loss here will be a big setback for either of them. Zimbabwe’s top-order has been fluent while the Irish powerplay bowling has been lethal and the battle between the two may well decide the result of this game. Zimbabwe are playing at home and that will be a factor to consider. Ireland scored 313 in their last match in just 46 overs on a pitch will was a lot similar as this one will be. Most of the Irish wins have been against less considerable opponents whereas Zimbabwe have managed to prevail over the likes of Afghanistan. Having said that, Ireland won their previous match in a convincing fashion and appear to be peaking at the right time. They have an in-form pace attack and with Stirling, Joyce, and Porterfield amongst the runs, they go in as firm favorites into the match.
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