Online Reporter
Eddie Chikamhi-Zimpapers Sports Hub
IT is all square in the T20I head-to-head records between Zimbabwe and Ireland ahead of their high stakes Group B encounter at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in Sri Lanka tomorrow.
In 18 previous meetings between the two nations, each team has won eight times against the other, while two games could not produce results.
Ireland are among the top three most faced opponents by Zimbabwe in the T20I format (behind Bangladesh and Pakistan) in a growing rivalry spanning over a decade.
The upcoming match at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium in Kandy tomorrow is more than just about the bragging rights as it is key in the battle for the Super Eight berth.
Zimbabwe boosted their chances of progressing to the next phase with a statement win over one of the pre-tournament favourites Australia, while Ireland bounced back in contention with the huge victory over Oman in their third game on Saturday.
They started off with defeats to Sri Lanka and Australia, but the two points they gained at the weekend kept the door open, provided they collect maximum points in their last group game against the Chevrons and then hope results elsewhere go in their favour.
However, opening batsman Brian Bennett reckons the Chevrons need to remain professional in their approach. Zimbabwe have had a flawless campaign so far after winning against Oman and Australia to claim second spot midway into the group games.
The group remains tight, but one more win in the remaining two games could be enough to secure a Super Eight spot.
“Yeah, definitely,” Bennett said.
“It’s obviously a great start to get two out of two wins this tournament. Obviously, we’ve got two more games left in the pool matches.
“I think we definitely just need to go back to the drawing board, not to get too far ahead of ourselves.”
Zimbabwe, along with Sri Lanka, Australia and Ireland are in contention for the two Super Eight berths in Group B following the elimination of Oman.
“We’ve still got two big games to play, and hopefully we can come out on top of those as well. I don’t think it’s going to be easy.
“We’ve got Sri Lanka and Ireland in the next two games. Like I said, we’ll go back to the drawing board, go back to our processes, go back to our planning, and you never know. T20 is a funny game, anything can happen,” said Bennett.
Zimbabwe may not have forgotten the memories from their first-ever encounter with Ireland at the 2014 World T20, where the Chevrons suffered a shock three-wicket upset against the then Associate Member and failed to progress to the second round despite winning their other two games in the preliminaries.
But Zimbabwe and Ireland have played more against each other in the last four years. They have met 15 times since the easing of the Covid-19 restrictions in 2021.
Captain Sikandar Raza and injured wicketkeeper/batter Brendan Taylor were in the team that lost to Ireland at the 2014 World T20 and have a huge role to play in psyching up the new crop.
Taylor, who will not play any further part on the pitch after suffering a right hamstring injury during the opening match against Oman in Colombo, has been retained in the dressing room specifically for that purpose despite having since been replaced in the playing squad by Ben Curran.
Zimbabwe blew Group B open, especially with the stunning victory over Australia, which took the Chevrons level on four points with leaders Sri Lanka. Ireland and Australia have two points apiece, but much will also rest on the result between the hosts, Sri Lanka, and the Aussies in the highly-anticipated blockbuster clash today.
On their part, Ireland do not just stand in the way as party spoilers, but they are also still very much in contention after posting their first win against the group’s whipping boys, Oman, at the weekend.
The 96-run win rekindled the faint hopes after the Irish had lost their opening two matches against Australia and Sri Lanka.
With two points in the bag, the Irish are still harbouring hope of a dramatic finish to the round robin fixtures ahead of their last group game against Zimbabwe.
Both teams come into the match on the back of morale-boosting wins on their last outings, and if numbers are anything to look at, Ireland are not going to be pushovers.
They showed their capabilities when they clubbed the highest score at this year’s tournament. Ireland piled on 235/5 against Oman in the 96-run win on Saturday. They eclipsed the 225/5 scored by Sri Lanka against the same opposition last week. Ireland raked up 86 runs from the last four overs, led by stand-in captain Lorcan Tucker, whose 51-ball 94 was key to the big win. Tucker is expected to lead the team against Zimbabwe following the injury to Ireland’s captain Paul Stirling, who has since been replaced. Zimbabwe are also hoping that Richard Ngarava, who missed the famous win over Australia, will be able to recover on time, while captain Raza, Blessing Muzarabani and Graeme Cremer have also been nursing niggles.
