Williams in late fitness test
SENIOR Sports Reporter ALL-ROUNDER Sean Williams will undergo a fitness test this morning to determine the possibility of him making his first appearance at the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifiers as hosts Zimbabwe look to book their place in the Super Six with a win against Hong Kong at Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo today.
Williams, a late inclusion into the squad, has watched the team’s opening matches against Nepal and Afghanistan from the sidelines recovering from a broken finger.
But Chevrons’ coach Heath Streak yesterday sounded upbeat about the experienced all-rounder who could come in handy with both bat and ball.
“Sean has been recovering well. We are going to do a final check on him tomorrow (this) morning and hopefully he will make the playing XI.
‘’There are very good chances,” said Streak.
Zimbabwe need just one win from their last two games to confirm their place in the Super Six following the wins over Nepal and Afghanistan.
The Chevrons are not likely to make many changes to their team but they realised they needed to beef up their batting following the disappointing outing against Afghanistan when they were bowled out for 196 before launching a strong fight to scramble a narrow two-run victory.
Williams is likely to take the place of Malcom Waller who has struggled to convince down the order.
Still the win over Afghanistan made it two in two for the hosts while Hong Kong have won one and lost one so far in the tournament.
They caused one of the big upsets when they beat Afghanistan by 30 runs through the Duckworth-Lewis method on Thursday to keep their campaign alive.
“We are taking them as seriously as we have done the other teams that we have played. Of course, they are not a Full Member but we have seen what they can do. They upset Afghanistan in their last game and they are on a high.
“But we have the momentum especially from our own hard-fought win over Afghanistan. That was a massive win for us given that we had come from a losing series against them in the UAE.
“But like I had said before, the home conditions are different from what we experienced in Sharjah and I am glad with the fighting spirit that we demonstrated.
‘’It was pleasing to pull off such a victory from that position, it was also pleasing to see the crowds rallying behind us the way they did.
“So we have to ride on the momentum. I believe we have great chance of going to the Super Six,” said Streak.
One win will guarantee Zimbabwe a place in the Super Six but because of the tournament structure which has been designed to allow teams to carry points from their group games against fellow Super Six qualifiers, they would need to win both matches against Hong Kong today and Scotland on Monday to put themselves at an advantage.
“We have to take one game at a time. It’s important to win against Hong Kong because they have good chances of qualifying following that win over Afghanistan. ‘’Scotland have already made it to the Super Six, so we need to win those matches to carry four points to the Super Six,” said Streak.
For Zimbabwe, the home crowd support has been outstanding and they have had consistence in performances from former captain Brendan Taylor and allrounder Sikandar Raza who was voted Man-of-the-Match for both matches.
Taylor is currently the tournament’s leading scorer with scores of 100 and 89 in two matches and with knocks of 123 and 60 Raza is third on the overall charts.
He has also had three-wicket hauls in both games to mark him as the most consistent performer to date.
With Brian Vitori suspended for suspected illegal bowling action, Zimbabwe can still look up to Blessing Muzarabani, Tendai Chatara and possibly new addition Richard Ngarava to lead the attack today.
But on a good day, Hong Kong can cause an upset like they did with polished performances against Afghanistan.
A confident Ehsan Khan, whose 4/33 was his career-best effort, has since said that Hong Kong can beat any team, while Babar Hayat, the captain, said the Afghanistan result didn’t surprise him.
“These guys have been performing well for the last three or four years. We’ve been working really hard for the last two years, and we’re capable of getting into the Super Six,” said Khan.
Squads
Zimbabwe: Graeme Cremer (c), Tendai Chatara, Tendai Chisoro, Craig Ervine, Kyle Jarvis, Hamilton Masakadza, Solomon Mire, Peter Moor, Blessing Muzarabani, Sikandar Raza, Brendan Taylor (wk), Malcolm Waller, Sean Williams, Cephas Zhuwao
Hong Kong: Babar Hayat (c), Ahsan Abbasi, Nadeem Ahmed, Tanveer Ahmed, Tanwir Afzal, Waqas Barkat, Chris Carter, Aizaz Khan, Ehsan Khan, Ehsan Nawaz, Nizakat Khan, Scott McKechnie (wk), Anshuman Rath, Simandeep Singh, Shahid Wasif