Associate nations shock test playing giants in World Cup Qualifiers

“IT’S the punch that you don’t see coming that knocks you out.”

That is literally what just transpired at the 2023 Men’s Cricket World Cup Qualifiers that are coming to an end tomorrow at Harare Sports Club.

Associate nations stood tall over the favourite full members. Who would have thought that two associate nations will have a better run than three Test playing nations in a tournament where they were not even considered as favourites? They were not part of the conversation at the start of the event.

A total of 10 teams were competing for the only two remaining slots to the World Cup and from those 10, four were full members of the International Cricket Council (ICC), in easier terms, Test playing nations. Six of those teams are Associate nations (non-full members).

If you asked anyone who would go through, the answer would have been a simple, either of the four Test playing nations. The four were Sri Lanka, West Indies, Ireland and the hosts, Zimbabwe while from the Associate world there was Nepal, Scotland, Netherlands, the United States of America (USA), the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Oman.

However, only two spots were up for grabs, meaning two giants were going to fall as the others were not given a chance. Fast forward to the start of the previous week, two were already down with two left in the race and at the end of the week, it was only Sri Lanka standing tall as others had fallen.

At the centre of the demise was one team, an associate side that had been playing some good cricket. It was none other than Scotland who beat the three giants. First, it was Ireland in their group match played at Queens Sports Club and they went on to eliminate the second most successful team in World Cup history, the West Indies in a Super Six encounter that was played at Harare Sports Club. The win against the Caribbean side gave the Scots the chance to dream.

Their next assignment was against the hosts, Zimbabwe, another game where they had no chance of winning. The Chevrons needed to win to qualify and Scotland also needed the maximum points to keep their hopes alive.

Another giant fell at the hands of the Scots!

The Chevrons crashed out from the tournament at the hands of Scotland after suffering a 31 runs defeat and put Scotland in control of the Super Six standings with six points and a superior net run rate. They looked set to go all the way as everything was in their favour.

Zimbabwe’s exit from the tournament meant that three giants will not be at the global showpiece. For the Chevrons, they will be missing out for the second consecutive edition having failed to qualify for the 2019 edition while the Windies will not participate at the World Cup for the first time.

Disappointed, Zimbabwean skipper Craig Ervine said it was not the end of the road as there is plenty of cricket left to be played and is after a continuation of the positive cricket that they have been playing and has been attracting thousands to the grounds.

“A continuation of that is something that we are after, we have been getting the results that obviously draws the people in and just trying to keep those results coming. We have a lot of cricket coming towards the end of the year as well and the Afro T10 coming up,” said Ervine.

His counterpart at the Windies camp, Shai Hope had no kind words for the off-field issues that affected his team.