Home ›› 17 Jul 2022 ›› Sport
Hosts Zimbabwe and the Netherlands filled the last two places for the Twenty20 World Cup in Australia by winning their qualifying tournament semi-finals in Bulawayo on Friday.
Reacting positively to a plea from coach Dave Houghton to be fearless, Zimbabwe beat Papua New Guinea by 27 runs after posting 199-5 in 20 overs, then restricting their rivals to 172-8.
Bas de Leede inspired the Netherlands to a seven-wicket win over the United States. Replying to an American total of 138 in 19.4 overs, the Dutch reached 139-3 with six balls to spare.
Australia, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, England, India, Ireland, Namibia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa, Sri Lanka, UAE and the West Indies had already secured places.
The 16-team tournament runs from October 16 to November 13.
“It is exciting to have qualified for the World Cup,” said Zimbabwe captain Craig Ervine. “Having put on 199, we felt we were going to take control of the game.
“I thought our seamers performed very nicely. At the group stage the spinners controlled the game for us, but credit to the seamers today. I wish we could play more cricket here (Bulawayo) because the support is unbelievable. We are on the rise and the most important thing is to keep improving.”
Houghton, who replaced Lalchand Rajput only a few weeks before the tournament after 3-0 T20 and one-day international series losses at home to Afghanistan, admitted he was “relieved”.
“We were under pressure because we were expected to qualify and were the only Test-playing nation among the contenders.”
Zimbabwe will be making a fifth appearance at the T20 finals, while it will be a fourth consecutive T20 World Cup appearance for the Dutch.
