“Pressure does funny things to everyone” were the exact words voiced by UAE head coach Dougie Brown after the conclusion of ICC WCL Division 2 on the prospect of having West Indies and Zimbabwe fight it along with the Associate nations in the ICC World Cup Qualifiers.
Each and every bit of those words came alive on 22nd Mar 2018 as UAE stunned Zimbabwe from qualifying directly into 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup with a nerve-wrecking 3 runs victory in the final over of the match, which was reduced to 40-overs for Zimbabwe chase due to a rain delay towards the end of UAE’s batting.
Having made 235/7 in 47.5 overs before the rain interruption, Zimbabwe were given a revised target of 230 from 40 overs when the match resumed. And they were still very much in the game being placed at 185/4 in the 35th over. An untimely wicket of Sikandar Raza, followed by Sean Williams dismissal in the 37th over brought UAE back into the match.
Going into the final over, Mohammad Naveed had 15 runs to defend and he did it brilliantly giving away only 11 runs to steal victory from the jaws of defeat by the whisker of margins of only 3 runs. A victory, which has now thrown new lease of life for both Ireland and Afghanistan, who are again back in the running for the final qualification spot for the World Cup. A result for either side will ensure their passage through to the World Cup, while a tie/no-result will make things more complicated as all three of Zimbabwe, Ireland and Afghanistan will finish with equal points.
This is definitely right this time!
The final #CWCQ Qualification permutations are as follows;
If Ireland beat Afghanistan they qualify
If Afghanistan beat Ireland they qualify
If it is a wash-out/NR Ireland qualify on Net Run Rate
A tie Zimbabwe qualify on Net Run Rate pic.twitter.com/cW8F5FTcvD— Andrew Leonard (@CricketBadge) March 22, 2018
Again, one of the thrilling matches in the World Cup Qualifiers saw an Associate country take the fight to one of the Full members and pulled off a major victory to showcase that while they might struggle with the bigger nations in the World Cup, the sheer presence of them in the tournament could bring about some upsets as well.
Ireland have had a topsy-turvy Super Sixes stage having won the must win match against Scotland after losing the first match against Zimbabwe. Afghanistan have won both their Super Sixes encounters against West Indies and UAE; however, they scraped through from the group stages after Nepal defeated Hong Kong in their final group stage match.
With the new lifeline and a spot in the World Cup, both teams will give out their absolute best on the field to see which of the newest Full member makes it to the grandest stage of them all, 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup.
