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Brandon Moyo, Sports Reporter
ONLY one spot is remaining for the 2023 International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup Qualifier after two teams, the United States of America (USA) and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) booked their berths in Zimbabwe for the June tournament.
The two nations managed to reach the Qualifier stage after emerging victorious in the World Cup Qualifier play-off that ended in Namibia yesterday. After their victories, only one team, coming from the Super League, remains to make it 10 nations.
The USA won by 25 runs against Jersey in their final round-robin match, a win that capped a 4-1 tournament for them. Their only loss came against Canada and Namibia’s win over Canada in Windhoek on Tuesday ensuring that only UAE can equal the USA at 4-1 in round-robin play, guaranteeing them a top-two finish to advance to the qualifier in Zimbabwe.
For UAE, yesterday’s match against Jersey was a dead rubber as they already owned the initial tournament tiebreaker over Namibia and Canada having beaten both teams head-to-head. Wins in head-to-head matches supersede net run rate as a tiebreaker if teams are level on points or round-robin play.
After the two associate nations booked their places in the Qualifier, South Africa or Ireland will be coming to Zimbabwe to make it 10 teams as the two countries are still in contention for direct qualification. However, Ireland, who have a home series against Bangladesh next month will have to whitewash the Tigers to have a chance of direct contention.
The Proteas sit in eighth place, but Ireland still has three One Day Internationals (ODIs) remaining against Bangladesh scheduled for May. Should Ireland win all three, they would be level with South Africa on points in which case net run rate would serve as the tiebreaker to decide which team clinches an automatic berth to the 2023 World Cup and which team falls back into the Qualifier in Zimbabwe.
South Africa moved to eighth after their series win against the Netherlands saw them overtake the West Indies, effectively sending the Caribbean nation to the Qualifier. South Africa have 98 points, while the Irish are on 68 and a whitewash over Bangladesh in May will also take them to 98.
USA, UAE, Scotland, Oman, Nepal, Netherlands, West Indies, Sri Lanka, and Zimbabwe are the nine teams confirmed to take part in the Qualifier.
The Chevrons missed out on the previous edition of the World Cup in 2019 for the first time and will be hoping to make the most out of the home conditions and qualify for the global showpiece scheduled for India in October. – @brandon_malvin
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter