By Mikey Godsmark
It's hard to pinpoint exactly
what went wrong for Scotland on Tuesday. Their openers put on 84 in less than
nine overs and the Scots were less on track with them needing less than 8 runs
an over to win. However, Matt Machan’s 36 came off too many balls as he
struggled to find the middle of the bat. After the openers fell the run rate
fell with them, the strike was rotated well, with several overs seeing a single
of each ball, but boundaries dried up completely; only one boundary was hit in
the last 10 overs which is not good enough. Zimbabwe’s death bowling was good
against Hong Kong so Scotland will need to be more aggressive and lose less
stupid wickets.
Scotland v Zimbabwe
It's hard to pinpoint exactly
what went wrong for Scotland on Tuesday. Their openers put on 84 in less than
nine overs and the Scots were less on track with them needing less than 8 runs
an over to win. However, Matt Machan’s 36 came off too many balls as he
struggled to find the middle of the bat. After the openers fell the run rate
fell with them, the strike was rotated well, with several overs seeing a single
of each ball, but boundaries dried up completely; only one boundary was hit in
the last 10 overs which is not good enough. Zimbabwe’s death bowling was good
against Hong Kong so Scotland will need to be more aggressive and lose less
stupid wickets.
Zimbabwe won their game at the
top and tail of each innings with Elton Chigumbura’s 30 being especially vital,
if he had gone at a run a ball, Hong Kong would have won. For Zimbabwe to now
step on, players such as Hamilton and Sean Williams need to convert their fast
starts into bigger scores as against a higher quality bowling attack, which
Scotland and Afghanistan possess, they won't be able to get theses starts as
easily and will need to take advantage of them when they come. Zimbabwe will be
looking to not give the Scots a look in as they hope to set up a decider
against the Afghans on Saturday.
Verdict: Narrow
Zimbabwe Win.
Afghanistan v Hong Kong
Afghanistan
would have watched Ireland’s loss to Hong Kong with a lot of concern. Certain
associates no longer just cause upsets but are also victims of them themselves.
Afghanistan have high expectations at home with the whole country uniting
behind the sport. The Afghan’s will be desperate to progress in order to have
the opportunity to compete on the highest stage against full members and show
their quality to the world. To get their they still have stiff opposition ahead
of them and they could do with more performances like Mohammad Shahzad’s knock
against Scotland and Nabi’s tight bowling at the death which eventually took
the game away from Scotland. Hamid Hassan may play after missing out on
Tuesday. There is no room for experimenting however as Hong Kong will not fall
over.
Tanwir
Afzal was undoubtedly Hong Kong’s best player two days ago. It was unfortunate
that nobody could match his hard hitting with the bat and that the death
bowling to Elton Chigumbura especially had a lot to be desired. Hong Kong are
the youngest squad at the tournament and their inexperience showed as they
didn’t quite have the nerve at each end of both innings against Zimbabwe.
Experience comes with time and mistakes made will have been analysed, if the
openers play with a little bit more freedom then we know that upsets can
happen.
Verdict: Afghanistan
Win
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