Zimbabwe vs West Indies Match Prediction, 13th Match of ICC World Cup Qualifiers 2023, Playing 11 and Pitch Report
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Zimbabwe vs West Indies Match Prediction: Zimbabwe will going to face one of their toughest challenges against West Indies, who are already in the Super 6 after winning 2 out of 2 matches.
The match will be played at Harare Sports Club, Zimbabwe, on June 24th, 2023, and it is going to be the 13th match of the ICC World Cup Qualifiers. Zimbabwe won their last match against the Netherlands side, who put in an amazing score of 315 runs in 50 overs, but Zimbabwe was at another level as they chased down the total in just 40.5 overs to win the match by 6 wickets.
Sikandar Raza was in supreme touch in that match as he took 4 wickets and scored a century against them, which clearly was amazing. Sean Williams also once again came to the Zimbabwe rescue as he scored yet another high score for the team. He scored 193 runs in just 2 matches to secure two wins in two games for the team.
The Zimbabwe team is showing confidence on the field as most of their top players are performing quite well in the tournament so far, but the next match against the West Indies will be their real test to show their skills and abilities.
West Indies will be going to go all out against Zimbabwe because it is possible that these two teams will qualify for the main event of the World Cup. They won their last match against Nepal in a dominating way by 101 runs.
The start of the West Indies was once again not good as they lost 2 wickets under 9 runs and the 3rd one at 55 runs, but they came to the team’s captain to the rescue and, together with Pooran, gave stability to the team. They had 216 runs partnership, and they both made centuries, but they had some luck as the opposition team dropped both batter’s catches.
When they came to bowl, Alzarri Joseph picked Kushal Bhurtel’s wicket in his first over on just 5 runs, and then Bhim Sharki got out on Jason Holder’s bowl on just 2 runs, and soon the bowlers of West Indies started to put up, and pressure on them and bowled them out on 238 runs.
Shai Hope was given the player of the match after scoring 132 runs, and in the post-interview, he said things about how he was in the match and made it through to the century.
I still believe the rhythm was a bit off. In that situation, I am just happy that I came good for the team. We were put on the back foot there, happy to get the team over the line today. The key was absorbing as much pressure as possible and then find a way to transfer that pressure in the back end. Pooran made it a lot easier for me. The aim was to take it as deep as possible, give us the best chance towards the end.
Shai Hope said in the post match
Zimbabwe vs West Indies: Head-to-Head ODI Record
Zimbabwe and West Indies played 48 matches against each other, in which West Indies won 36 matches and Zimbabwe won 10 matches.
The last time they played against each other was in 2018, and that one was in the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifiers, which happened in Zimbabwe just like this year. West Indies won that match by 4 wickets after chasing down a total of 290 in 49 overs. Marlon Samuels and Shai Hope were the top performers from the West Indies side. Jason Holder took 4 wickets in that match. Brendan Taylor of Zimbabwe scored 138 runs from his side, which was not enough to give a win to his fans.
Pitch Report of Harare Sports Club, Harare, for the 13th ICC World Cup Qualifiers Match between Zimbabwe vs West Indies on June 23rd, 2023
Match Played | 177 matches |
Batting first won | 82 matches won |
Batting second won | 91 matches won |
Average 1st innings scores | 232runs |
Highest Team innings total | 350/6 Declare by Australia vs Zimbabwe |
Lowest Team innings total | 35/10 by Zimbabwe vs Sri Lanka |
The pitch of Harare Sports Club showed some assistance to spin bowlers in the last match between West Indies and Nepal as spinners took six wickets in the match, which is the most in a single match till now in the ICC World Cup Qualifiers 2023.
The pitch is still in favor of the batters after the initial overs, and they find it easy to play their shots as Pooran and Shai Hope did.
Team Preview of Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe will have a hard time in their next match because it is against the top side West Indies, but they will both test themselves to the fullest.
Sean Williams has been taking his side to win in both of the matches as he is performing quite well in the ICC World Cup Qualifiers 2023. They are the host team and know the condition quite well, but they don’t have a good head-to-head record against the West Indies side.
Important Players of Zimbabwe in the match against West Indies
1- Sean Williams has been phenomenal in both matches of ICC World Cup Qualifiers as he scored 193 runs in those 2 matches. He also scores runs with a good strike rate which is one of the crucial things for any batter in a new era.
2- Sikandar Raza gave in a lifetime performance in the last match against the Netherlands side as he picked up four wickets and made 102 runs. He scored a century with a strike rate of 188 which is quite amazing, but he was lucky with the wickets as there was not much turn from the pitch. Still, he got 4 wickets because the opposition batter played some loose shots.
3- Wessly Madhevere needs to give a good performance in the next match against West Indies because in his last two matches, he was a flop as an allrounder, but in the next match, he might come handy with bowling. He scored 639 runs with an average of 21.30 runs in 31 matches. He took 13 wickets.
Team Preview of West Indies
West Indies are top contenders in the ICC World Cup Qualifiers to be qualified for the main event, which will happen in India in October, but for that, they need to live up to their name. Recently West Indies suffered a fall in their performance because they are the team who knows how to win the World Cup as they did many times in the past, but now they need to pull themselves together and play like one because that is the only thing West Indies lacks.
In the last match against Nepal, their opener once again failed to score runs as both of them got out under 9 runs, which clearly shows that the openers need to be more settled down and give themselves time.
Important Players of West Indies in the match against Zimbabwe
1- Shai Hope has been amazing with the bat for the West Indies side as in both matches, he came quite early but scored 186 runs in 2 matches which clearly shows how important he is for the team. He must play the same innings in the next match against Zimbabwe. Until now, he played 110 matches, scoring 4674 runs with an average of 50.26. In the last 9 matches, he scored 459 runs with an average of 65.57 which clearly shows his importance.
2- Nicholas Pooran also scored a century in the last match against Nepal when the team was in a bit of trouble, but he was lucky as the wicketkeeper dropped his simple catch, which coasted them the match.
3- Jason Holder has been one of the great all-rounders for the team in the qualifiers as in the first match against the USA, he scored 56 runs and took 1 wicket. In the 2nd match, he scored 16 runs and took 3 wickets.
Zimbabwe vs West Indies: Probable Playing 11 of Zimbabwe
Joylord Gumbie, Craig Ervine(c), Wessly Madhevere, Sean Williams, Sikandar Raza, Ryan Burl, Clive Madande(w), Wellington Masakadza, Richard Ngarava, Tendai Chatara, Blessing Muzarabani
Zimbabwe vs West Indies: Probable Playing 11 of West Indies
Brandon King, Kyle Mayers, Johnson Charles, Shai Hope(w/c), Nicholas Pooran, Roston Chase, Rovman Powell, Jason Holder, Keemo Paul, Alzarri Joseph, Akeal Hosein