- Zimbabwe ended up on the losing side against South Africa and they will be eager to get their campaign back on track when they take on United Arab Emirates
- The team from UAE, making their second World Cup appearance since 1996, will be hoping to pull off some surprises
Zimbabwe will be hoping for the top-order to come good again. © Getty
Despite a spirited display in their opening match, Zimbabwe ended up on the losing side against South Africa and they will be eager to get their campaign back on track when they take on minnows United Arab Emirates. The team from UAE, making their second World Cup appearance since 1996, will be hoping to pull off some surprises but given Zimbabwe's current form, it will be a tough task for the Asian team.
Venue: Saxton Oval, Nelson
Date:February 19, 2015
Time:0330 Hrs IST
Weather: Mostly sunny with a high of 25 degrees
Team news
Zimbabwe
The Elton Chigumbura-led side, that came up with a fighting performance against South Africa, has warned UAE of no mercy with the skipper promising a "ruthless" approach. Zimbabwe had the Proteas in a spot at 83 for 4, only to see David Miller and JP Duminy put on an unbeaten 256-run stand to power South Africa to a total of 339 in 50 overs. In reply, Zimbabwe were in a pretty comfortable position at 191/2 before losing their last eight wickets for just 86 runs. Before their opening game, Zimbabwe had done well in the warm-ups as well - they left New Zealand in a lot of trouble before rain intervened, before they stunned Sri Lanka by chasing down 280.
The bowlers, who had done a fine job in the first half of their innings against South Africa, came under the attack in the latter stages, with Miller and Duminy blasting 111 runs off the last six overs. Chamu Chibhabha and Hamilton Masakadza did well with the bat, as did Brendan Taylor to an extent, but the rest of the batters failed to come up with anything substantial which led to a 62-run loss. Zimbabwe will be hoping for their bowlers to deliver with a lot more discipline, while they will also expect their batters to show more application in their remaining matches.
Going by skipper Chigumbura's words, Zimbabwe are unlikely to make any changes to their eleven. "Our team is quite balanced when it comes to batting and bowling, so it's just polishing up where it went wrong in the first game," he said.
Probable XI:1. Chamu Chibhabha, 2. Sikandar Raza, 3. Hamilton Masakadza, 4. Brendan Taylor (wk), 5. Sean Williams, 6. Craig Ervine, 7. Elton Chigumbura (capt), 8. Solomon Mire, 9. Tinashe Panyangara, 10. Tendai Chatara, 11. Tafadzwa Kamungozi.
United Arab Emirates
It is close to 20 years since UAE made their World Cup debut and the Asian side will be keen to prove that they are not a team to be taken lightly. UAE will be looking to add to their only World Cup win, which came against the Netherlands in 1996. The Mohammad Tauqir-led side is taking inspiration from Ireland, who humbled West Indies in their first match of the showpiece event.
UAE's team is a mix of expatriates and semi-professionals. Captain Tauqir, who is an investment banker himself, said Ireland's win is a huge boost to every minnow and his side will also be looking to pull off some giant-killing acts in the tournament. The Asian team has a mix of youth and experience with Tauqir (42 years) and leading batsman Khurram Khan (43 years) sharing the distinction of being the tournament's oldest players.
In their practice match against Australia, UAE's lack of international experience was exposed by the hosts, who amassed 304 runs before skittling them out for 116. They side fared a lot better against Afghanistan, running their Asian rivals close in a chase of 309 before ending up 15 runs short.
Probable XI:1. Amjad Ali, 2. Andri Berenger, 3. Krishna Chandran, 4. Khurram Khan, 5. Swapnil Patil (wk), 6. Shaiman Anwar, 7. Rohan Mustafa, 8. Mohammad Naveed, 9. Amjad Javed, 10. Mohammad Tauqir (capt), 11. Nasir Aziz.
Watch out for
He scored 63 against Sri Lanka in the warm-up game while he got out on 40 against South Africa. Former Zimbabwe ODI skipper Brendan Taylor has been amongst the runs, but a big knock is due from him. UAE may well be the team that gets Taylor going in this tournament.
The oldest player of this World Cup, Khurram Khan, was in superb form during the ODI series against Afghanistan in November-December 2014, amassing 270 runs in three matches including a hundred and two fifties. UAE will be hoping that the senior batsman replicates that form in the big event.
Quotes:
"You have to take every game seriously, do the basics right and make sure when you get into a good winning position you are ruthless and win the game."- Elton Chigumbura
"It was a great win for Ireland. Most of the associate nations are doing well and we would like to prove a point also."- Mohammad Tauqir
Stats:
Elton Chigumbura needs three more wickets to reach the 100 ODI wickets milestone. Once he does that, he will become only the second Zimbabwe player after Grant Flower with the triple of 3000 or more runs, 100 or more wickets and 50 or more catches.
Hi! I am UmEr Wa(Arshad), A part time blogger and love blogging. I am blogging since start of 2014. My main aim of blogging is to provide knowledge and my self experience to everyone. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0.- Way2hackie
thankyou ConversionConversion EmoticonEmoticon