Zimbabwe and Nepal will tussle it out on the first day and their first match of the ICC World Cup Qualifier 2018, will begin on March 04. Gradually progressing side, Nepal will face well-known commodity of world cricket, Zimbabwe on 4th March in Queen Sports Club, Bulawayo. Zimbabwe will find themselves on uniquely luxurious position ahead of ICC World Cup Qualifier 2018, not only because they are up-against so call inexperience side, but they get to start their campaign on their favorite and lucky venue, Bulawayo. Talking about a visitor, They haven’t played a cricket match in Zimbabwe till now, this is an entirely new venue for them. That’s not a bad thing. The blend of youth and experience means there’s enough wide-eyed awe to still get giddy about all this tournament stuff.
This match will be recorded in List ‘A’ format. This is the first instance that Nepal is facing full member side in any ICC’s tournament of 50 overs. Zimbabwe has long cricketing experience and history as they are ICC’s full member since 1992 AD. Having registered 131 ODIs wins, the host had completed their 500th appearance in ODI recently. They have huge experience of 105 test matches. Talking about their opponent, Nepal, they have very young cricketing history and it’s a huge achievement for them to compete at this level. Nepal was is an Associate member of ICC since 1996 AD, 15 years late than Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe has played 9 ODI matches in 2018, succeed to win 2 out of them where Nepal have played 6 List ‘A’ matches this year, registered 4 victories. Statistically, Nepal has good recent form but the difference is Nepal compete in World Cricket League stage where Zimbabwe competes against Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan. Half of the players from Zimbabwe’s squad have glory to take matches home single-handedly on their day, but talking about best among the finest, their most experienced player, Brendon Taylor, is in considerable form.
Taylor (125) scored a massive century against Afghanistan in second ODI of recently concluded ODI series. He has experience of 176 ODI matches with 9 centuries under his belt along with 33 half-centuries. He is one of most key player for Zimbabwe and he must stand tall if Zimbabwe has to qualify for cricket mega event, World Cup. Nepal’s Mr. Everything, their skipper Paras Khadka is unarguably the most key player for Nepal in this tournament. Nepal’s first priority will be to finish on top 3 among associates (expect the Netherlands) to ensure their ODI status for the tenure of coming four years.
As it is around a week more for this clash so, we will bring you some more Preview’s episode. For today, we are presenting you (with stat) the weakness of Zimbabwe’s batting and strength of Nepal’s bowling. Undoubtedly, Zimbabwe has a tall upper hand in this encounter. Zimbabwe leads the chart in every department. Zimbabwe is miles better than Nepal. Even the admirable Moon has blemished, which is overshadowed by its beauty. We can’t be criticised moon for it, the same way we can’t put Zimbabwe behind by following tiny defect. But an error is error and Nepal must try their best to exploit it.
Zimbabwe’s performance in last 10 away matches.
Loss of wicket – 88
Against pacer – 32
Against Right-arm pacer – 27
Against Left-arm pacer – 05
Against Spinner – 52
Against Off-spinner – 22
Against Leg-spinner – 16
Against Orthodox-spinner – 12
Against Chinaman-spinner – 02
Dismissed by RunOut – 04
Opposition against Nepal in last 10 matches.
Loss of wicket – 74
Against Pacer – 20
Against Right-arm pacer – 10
Against Left-arm pacer – 10
Against Spinner – 48
Against Orthodox-spinner – 28
Against Leg-spinner – 14
Against Off-spinner – 06
Dismissed by RunOut – 06.
Among 88 wickets that Zimbabwe has lost in their last 10 matches, 52 (59.09%) of them were against spinner which clearly shows the dominance of slower bowler against Zimbabwe batsmen. Where on the other hand, out of 74 wickets that Nepal has successfully picked in their last 10 matches, 48 (64.86%) of them are picked by a spinner? Again, which clearly shows the dominance of Nepal spin bowlers over the opposition. Talking about Zimbabwe’s last 5 home matches, they lost 37 wickets, out of which 26 (70.27%) wickets were against the spinner. Above stats shows Zimbabwe’s batsmen defect against spinner and Nepal’s dependency over their slower bowlers. So, keeping the history and reputation of a team aside for while, we can surely witness a close contest between these two sides.
But Nepal needs to be on more than their best to take match close. With a promise to bring some more previews before the match, we would like to sign-off from this segment with some more stats below.
