Netherlands and Zimbabwe become the final two teams to qualify for the 20-20 world cup

With just 93 days left for the upcoming 20-20 world cup in Australia scheduled to start on 16^th October 2022, the final two teams to participate in the tournament have been confirmed. Netherlands and Zimbabwe have confirmed their places for the grand tournament later this year as they beat the USA and Papua New Guinea respectively in the semi-finals of the Men’s 20-20 world cup qualifier B.

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In the first semi-final between Zimbabwe and Papua New Guinea, Zimbabwe won the toss and chose to bat. The decision to bat first by the captain Craig Ervine was further vindicated by the batters as they provided a solid start to the team up the order. The entire batting unit of Zimbabwe came into the act as they had their eyes set on a place in the 20-20 world cup.  Wesley Madhevre was the top scorer for Zimbabwe with 42(29) as they scored a monumental total of 199 for 5 in their allotted 20 overs. Sese Bau and Charles Amini picked up 2-2 wickets each for PNG.

The chase for PNG got off to the worst possible start as they lost a wicket on the very first ball of their innings. Zimbabwe bowlers kept chipping in with wickets as PNG were left reeling at 34/3 in 4.5 overs. Zimbabwe batters had two good partnerships of 49 and 56 runs that kept them in the chase. But it was all done and dusted for PNG as they lost Tony Ura on the score of 139 after 15 overs. Ura top scored with 66 off 35 balls. After his departure, PNG couldn’t recover and ended up losing the game by 27 runs.

In the second semi-final between USA and Netherlands, the USA won the toss and chose to bat. USA got off to a flyer as the openers scored 51 in 5.1 overs. The high-speed train of USA got de-railed as they began losing wickets in quick succession and got all out for 138. The Dutch batters walked out to bat and got off to a disastrous start as they lost their first wicket on the third ball of the innings. But the innings was held together by Bas De Leede who took the attack on USA bowlers as the other batters batted around him. The Netherlands chased down the total in 19 overs as they sealed a spot in the 20-20 world cup.

Zimbabwe and Netherlands will battle it out with the other 6 teams to further qualify for the super 12 stage of the tournament.