After 33 intense matches between 10 teams that were vying for the two spots in the Cricket’s flagship event, it is West Indies and Afghanistan who have emerged as the ninth and tenth to complete the line-up of the ten-team World Cup that starts in England next year. The Qualifier event threw up some surprises and some heartbreaks in the course of last 20 days to determine the World Cup finalists.
Before the tournament began, the favorites to qualify were West Indies and Afghanistan. Playing at their home, Zimbabwe was a strong third who could upset the favorites and there were hopes for Ireland and Scotland to put up a strong show. All the pre-tournament analysis was out of the window on the first day itself with Scotland defeating Afghanistan.
Also Read: Scotland Skipper Blames Umpiring Decisions For Their Loss
Playing under the captaincy of a 19-year old Captain in absence of their regular captain, Afghanistan team’s performance nosedived as they conceded a loss in the next match against Zimbabwe in a nail-biting finish. The lack of confidence saw them being beaten by Hong Kong too. The Favorites Afghanistan lost all three matches they had played so far.
The team regrouped and came back strong with a win over Nepal in their last round match. Going into Super Sixes without a point, they defeated the much-fancied West Indies team first, next they defeated UAE and Ireland to complete four wins in a row.
The Afghanistan team had only a mathematical probability of qualifying while going into the Super Six stage but their winning streak and other favorable results helped them overcome the great odds and script one of the most phenomenal comebacks.
The #CWC19 line-up is complete! 👊
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✅ @BCBtigers
✅ @englandcricket
✅ @BCCI
✅ @BLACKCAPS
✅ @TheRealPCB
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✅ @westindies pic.twitter.com/MgkgKGDtWD— ICC Cricket World Cup (@cricketworldcup) March 23, 2018
If one glances at the tournament match results, it will be mighty impressed with West Indies who lost just one match and won the rest five. A deeper inspection of the scorecards will reveal a different story though.
Windies started off strong against UAE but then was trapped in tricky situations by Papua New Guinea and Ireland. Fortunately, the Windies found a hero in every match who took the two-times World Champions home. The loss against Afghanistan meant Windies needed to defeat Scotland to secure the World Cup spot.
The virtual knockout match was played in a very tense situation. Scotland kept Windies down to only 198 and after losing few wickets looked well on course to cause the greatest upset. The rain intervened and rescued Windies. The World Cup winners of 1975 & 1979 confirmed their place in the 2019 World Cup.
The Tournament favorites ended up as the winners but after a lot of ups and downs. The real heartbreaks were those of Scotland and Zimbabwe who lost out on the World Cup berth by a margin of five and three runs respectively.
