In what could not only be a vital encounter but also one of the more evenly-fought ones, West Indies and Zimbabwe will go head to head at Canberra and you can follow its live scores from 2:30pm AEDT.
Both teams have had interesting starts to the competition.
The West Indies started off with a thumping defeat at the hands of Ireland. They recovered from a poor start of having lost five wickets for 87 to compile 304 batting first but Ireland were clinical in their chase. The defeat came with 25 balls to spare, a mark of how much below par the West Indies were in the game.
They came back well in the second match though. And they did that against a Test nation too.
West Indies batted first again and amassed 310 with Lendl Simmons, Darren Sammy and Andre Russell finishing it off rather well. 116 runs were scored off the last 10.1 overs by the trio. And in reply, they had Pakistan shocked at 4/1 before they recovered to end at 160.
Zimbabwe also began with a defeat to South Africa but they ran them close. After having them at 4/83 and then allowing South Africa to get away to 339 batting first, Zimbabwe got to 1/137 in the 24th over, remaining neck in neck with the opposition.
Unfortunately the lack of experience down the order did not help and they crashed to allow Soith Africa to win 73 in the end. Hamilton Masakadza and Justice Chibhabha scored half-centuries for them but they would have liked one of them to kick on.
Their bowling struggled yet again in the UAE game with their opponents getting to 285 in their 50 overs from being 134 for four at one stage. Fortunately for Zimbabwe, they got off to a reasonable start, and then cruised to the target through Sean Williams and Craig Ervine.
As things stand in the table, four of the teams could be in line for the third and the fourth spot behind India and South Africa, and these include West Indies and Zimbabwe.
With the teams so evenly matched, not only will three wins in the league stage matter, there is a good chance sides could find themselves tied on points and the net run-rate could come into the picture.
Pakistan lost both their matches so badly and that should give both West Indies and Zimbabwe – and even Ireland – a good chance of going through even if they go down in this one. What the losing side will then need to do is to win two others but keep this defeat to being a narrow one.
Of course that’s not how the teams will be thinking, or at least not what they fans would be want them to think through. They will, in fact, want their own team to be desperate for a victory, taking them a step closer to quarter-final qualification.
West Indies will be obvious favourites, having not lost to Zimbabwe in the last seven ODIs and having never gone down to them in World Cup cricket either, but Zimbabwean coach Dav Whatmore is an astute tactician and can hold a card or two up his sleeve too.
You can follow the live score of this West Indies vs Zimbabwe World Cup encounter from 2:30pm AEDT and post your comments in the section below.
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