Innocent Kurira, Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE moved from the bottom of the International Cricket Council World Cup Super League table following their 22-run victory over Sri Lanka on Tuesday.
The win saw Zimbabwe moving into 10th place on the standings with 35 points from 11 matches.
They are now placed above the Netherlands, Afghanistan and New Zealand.
In its first edition, the Super League will help decide which teams qualify for the men’s 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup in India.
The 13 Super League teams comprise 12 ICC Full Members and the Netherlands, which qualified by winning the 2015-17 ICC World Cricket League Championship.
Under the Super League, teams will play eight three-match series each, four at home and four away.
Each team gets 10 points for a win and five for a draw/no result/abandonment.
Teams that fail to qualify directly will still get a second shot through a qualifier.
World Cup hosts India and the top seven teams from the Super League will automatically qualify, while the bottom five will play a qualifying tournament, which will feature the best teams from the lower rungs of the competition.
Captain Craig Ervine put up a man-of-the-match performance with the bat, scoring 91 runs. Sikandar Raza also impressed with the bat, scoring 56 off 46 deliveries to give Zimbabwe a first innings score of 302 runs.
Ervine said he was disappointed not to get a hundred, but was pleased with the overall performance of his team.
“It’s disappointing when you do not get a hundred, but what is important is getting runs for the team.
It was quite nice to bat, it was coming on nicely.
I thought there was a little bit more in it for the spinners today.
I thought in the first game we were bowled a little bit short and wide, and I thought this time the seamers did really well to get those early wickets for us,” Ervine said.
“We were under a bit of pressure to win today, but hats off to the boys for coming out and showing that, you know, desperation to pull off the win.”
Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka will meet in the series decider tomorrow.
— @innocentskizoe