FORMER Zimbabwe cricket captain Alistair Campbell has suggested that the team’s performance in the ICC World Cup so far means they are capable of beating Pakistan and India in Pool B matches.
“The match against Ireland is crucial to our chances of progressing, but we will have to beat Pakistan or India, too,” Alistair Campbell wrote in his column for ICC website.
“It is not impossible – far from it. But we will have to find a way of limiting the damage in the final overs. The best way, of course, is to take more early wickets.”
Campbell added, “but there has been some good as well as some bad for Zimbabwe in our first three games and we’re still alive with the possibility of a quarter-final place remaining a reality – not just statistically, but because we are playing well enough to produce an upset.”
Zimbabwe put up a fight in their first World Cup match against African neighbours South Africa before going down by 62 runs after the Proteas put on board a mammoth 339 runs.
Zimbabwe then defeated UAE by four wickets before going down against West Indies by 73 runs. They will face Pakistan on March 1.
Pakistan has lost both of their first two matches comprehensively beaten by India and the West Indies by 76 and 150 runs respectively.
Zimbabwe, in each of the three previous outings, managed 250 plus runs while Pakistan failed to cross the 250 mark and even failed to cross the 200 mark with more than 300 runs to chase on both occasions. Zimbabwe will be looking to beat Pakistan and associates Ireland to qualify for the quarter-finals.
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However, beating India would be a tough task, since the defending champions have found form just at the right time beating Pakistan and South Africa so far in the World Cup.
– Agencies
