NEWS
Follow UsZimbabwe produced an all-around performance against West Indies to record a 35-run win to progress to the Super Six stage and inch closer to securing their place in the ODI World Cup slated to commence in India later this year.
West Indies and Netherlands, the other two teams along with Zimbabwe, will progress further to the Super Six from Group A and still have a chance to feature in the summit clash of the Qualifiers on July 9.
However, Zimbabwe, having beaten both teams, will progress to the next stage with four points and in a much better position to confirm their flight to India.
Windies coach Daren Sammy was extremely disappointed with the lack of efforts by the team and rued missed opportunities on the field as the reason for their defeat on Saturday, June 24.
"When you put on a display of fielding like this, and then you get yourself in good positions, and you take the game for granted, the cricket gods will make you pay. That's exactly what I'm going to tell them in the dressing room. We did not deserve to win. We did not play to win today," he said in a post-match press conference.
"We've made our road to the World Cup more difficult, but I don't give up on anything. I'm going to keep on encouraging the boys to be better because the train that I've started here is going to be moving. Whoever wants a ticket, they've got to come and buy it at the ticket office, and at the moment, some of us are not buying that ticket for the train to move on."
The former Windies skipper also heaped praises on the all-around effort from the home team and insisted they deserved to win after their consistent performances in the group stages.
"We found ourselves in positions with both ball and bat to knock them over. We didn't. When you throw the first punch, you don't let the opposition come back. Today we kept Zimbabwe close by. They deserved to win."
"They kept their cool. They kept taking wickets. They kept taking the chances we offered them. It was a good victory for them, but it's a big lesson for us. You can't play the game of cricket and take it for granted."
"When I took this job, I wanted to change a couple of things. Mindset - that's slowly getting there - preparation, performance. All these things have to be done on a consistent basis. That's what we are trying to work on. We'll now have to look at personnel as well. The journey is not over. It's just continuing.
"But there's no time to cry and think about it too much. We've got to get our game face on. Monday becomes very important for us," he concluded.
