Defeat for Scotland in their opening T20 World Cup match against Afghanistan on Tuesday means they know they have to beat Zimbabwe in their second game of the competition on Thursday else they will be eliminated at the earliest opportunity.
Zimbabwe won their opening match of the event against Hong Kong but they had plenty of areas where they can improve. Whether they manage those improvements given the pressure they are under to win here remains to be seen. Zimbabwe really can’t afford to lose with a match against Afghanistan to come.
Scotland will be ruing passing up a good chance to beat Afghanistan in their first match. After they struggled to contain Mohammad Shahzad their openers had recovered the situation only for their middle order to fail to build on the platform that had been set. In a way they will be encouraged but ultimately they are still looking for their first World Cup win of any kind.
Zimbabwe just about handled the pressure against Hong Kong and if they win this they can relax a little because they will probably be slight outsiders in their final group game against Afghanistan. Zimbabwe might try and find room in the XI for another spinner but they can improve in all three departments.
Given that Scotland had their match against Afghanistan under control at one point I don’t think they will force themselves into making too many changes for this one but Con de Lange could come in to boost both the batting and the bowling. Calum MacLeod’s form leaves him open to make way but he is an experienced player albeit an out of form one.
Zimbabwe are toying with the idea of bringing Tendai Chisoro into their side for an extra spin option with perhaps Donald Tiripano dropping out but Chisoro never banged the door down in the warm up matches. Chamu Chibhabha is another one who will hope to come into the team.
This is the first time these two nations have ever met in a full international so there might be an element of feeling each other out. Ultimately though the conditions are likely to win the day and you would think Zimbabwe are better suited to them than Scotland are unless Scotland can find more quality spin options.
I think the match odds are about right but I was successful with a punt on Scotland’s fours in their first game and despite them covering it inside seven overs the line is exactly the same for this game at 11.5.
Hong Kong scored 13 fours against this Zimbabwe side and I think Zimbabwe’s attack is probably more to Scotland’s liking than Afghanistan’s was. Add to that the first matches were played in the middle of the square and with only two days between you would think these matches will be played away from the middle there should be a short boundary somewhere so I’m going to take over 11.5 fours for Scotland again.
Back Scotland Over 11.5 fours for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Paddy Power
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