Zimbabwe cricket captain Craig Ervine has remained cautious about the team’s chance of making it into the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup semi-finals ahead of a crucial tie against long-time rivals Bangladesh this morning.
The Chevrons presented themselves with a huge chance to make the last four after their giant-killing act against Pakistan, but Ervine wants his team to stay focussed on their next battle.
After a thrilling one run finals ball win over 2009 champions Pakistan in Perth on Thursday Zimbabwe are level with South Africa on three points behind group leader India.
Zimbabwe will be looking for another Super 12 win when they take on Bangladesh at the Brisbane Cricket Ground, commonly known as the Gabba.
A win for the African side will boost their chances of making it to a first cricket World Cup semi-final.
But Ervine refused to be excited about the prospect of making it to the semis.
“Look, we've got a huge chance to make the semis,” the 37-year-old told reporters ahead of today's contest in Brisbane.
“It requires us to win against Bangladesh and also to beat Netherlands, and then we've got our final game against India, and depending on some other results.
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“I think we're probably just looking at tomorrow (Sunday) and trying to concentrate on tomorrow's game and putting in a good performance tomorrow, and then after that, then we can look at Netherlands and plan our way forward from there.”
Bangladesh are having a forgettable World Cup campaign and are fresh from a 104-run defeat in their match against South Africa on Thursday, but Ervine would not underestimate their opponents.
“We know that Bangladesh is a quality side, so we're definitely going to have to bring our A-game tomorrow,” he said.
“The guys — obviously got their tails up. We've got a lot of confidence obviously with the win against Pakistan, but we just know how fragile this game is and how quickly it can turn around”.
The victory against Pakistan was a major boost, but Zimbabwe deserves more opportunities against the top teams, the middle order batter said.
“We'd like to try and repeat those kinds of wins going forward to try and make sure that we can get an away tour to England or England can come to us or Australia or India,” he said.
“It does open up opportunities, but we need to do it a little bit more consistently.”
Zimbabwe’s star allrounder Sikandar Raza echoed the skipper’s sentiments.
“We're going to take one game at a time. All our energy and focus was on Pakistan, now it shifts to Bangladesh, and we'll do our analysis and take one game at a time,” Raza said.
“But I genuinely believe in this group of boys and what we've done is open the group.
“The Irish boys did it in the other group and it's nice to be here with the group not just wide open, but Zimbabwe have got a really good chance to achieve something.
“Everyone who plays good cricket can basically win and you never know where Zimbabwe ends up.
“We're not going to start looking and thinking about the semi-final; we're going to take one game at a time and look at Bangladesh.”
Raza has been Zimbabwe’s talisman at the tournament with three man of the match accolades so far and has led from the front with both bat and ball.
If Zimbabwe win their next two matches against Bangladesh and Netherlands they will likely make the last four at the tournament.
