Minnows Excel in the Warm-Up Matches

The build up for the world cup 2015 has been amazing, though injuries are a scare for all the teams due to the hard surfaces in Australia and New Zealand. The warm up matches are going on and the teams are looking to get some match practice before the big tournament. What we have witnessed so far in the warm up matches is that the minnows namely Ireland, Scotland, Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, UAE have prepared well for the world cup and are ready to take on the big guns.

The recently concluded Zimbabwe vs Sri Lanka match was the biggest upset so far with Zimbabwe defeating the finalists of the previous edition convincingly. With 50s from Jeevan Mendis and Dimuth Karunaratne, Lankans reached a respectable score of 279 in 50 overs. Zimbabwe riding on a brilliant century from Hamilton Mazakadza and 50s from Sean Williams and Brendon Taylor reached the target with 28 balls to spare and with 7 wickets in hand. Zimbabwe, having a new inspirational coach Dav Whatmore will look to remove their minnows tag by performing well at the world cup and look to carry this confidence into their next game against South Africa.

 

Afghanistan also looked good in their match against India, but in patches. Their new ball bowling was excellent, better than the Indians. They bowled tight lines and kept the Indians quiet and also took two big wickets of Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli before Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane took them apart and piled on a massive total of 364 runs. Chasing a mammoth, Afghanistan came out with all guns blazing, scoring over 6 an over in the first 5-6 overs, but then a combination of poor batting and excellent bowling in the middle overs saw Afghanistan scoring only 211 from their 50 overs. Though there were a lot of positives for Afghanistan in this match.

 

Ireland and Scotland played against each other and though Ireland lost badly, they still shouldn’t be taken lightly. Scotland on the other hand looked good in that match with a century from Matt Machan and they will look to perform in a similar manner against the West Indies.

With the big guns made to work hard by the minnows, who know what would transpire when the world cup starts. This world cup might witness a few upsets.

Edited by Shivang Aggarwal