By Aidan Smyth
After their shock defeat to Scotland in their first qualifying game, West Indies turn their attention to Zimbabwe in a game they simply have to win, to keep their hopes of qualification alive.
It won’t all be plain sailing however, Zimbabwe have lost just two t20 games since the beginning of July, steam rolling their way through the qualifiers, before their convincing defeat of Ireland in their first game of the competition.
It was a disappointing effort from the Windies first time around, particularly with the bat, as only Jason Holder (38 off 33) came away with any sort of performance, the top order getting starts and giving wickets away. With the ball, they weren’t a whole lot better, Joseph and Holder both picked up a couple of wickets and bowled well, but Obed McCoy and Kyle Mayers, in particular, were a little disappointing.
For Zimbabwe, the top of the order was a similar story to the Windies, with the top 4 not kicking onto scores they would have liked, but The Chevrons managed to get to a very competitive score with a magnificent knock from Sikander Raza (82 off 48) and the bowlers were solid enough to defend that. As previously mentioned this is a must win game for the Windies, and I expect them to get the job done.
Zimbabwe struggled with the bat against Josh Little in the game against Ireland, and despite his magnificent bowling display, with due respect to Little, he isn’t at the same level as Alzarri Joseph, who will fancy his chances of adding to his two first game wickets. With the bat, Evin Lewis failed to kick on against Scotland, and would have been very disappointed to get out for just 14. Lewis does though have a career average of over 30 in t20 internationals, a very good record over 50 innings, and with a career best of 125 not out, it is clear that Lewis is very capable of kicking on to big scores when he gets going.
10Bet have offered a very reasonable 11/4 on Lewis to be the top scorer in the match for the Windies. I feel that price could represent excellent value. We saw in the first game that the Windies don’t have the destructive batting lineup they had just a few years ago, and they could be reliant on Lewis to fire them to victory.
Bet - Evin Lewis top run scorer for the Windies (11/4).
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