“Hopefully Bangladesh can do us a favour”: Zimbabwe’s Jarvis

Thursday, 25 January 2018 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

ESPNCricinfo: The Zimbabwe batsmen could have simply emulated what Bangladesh’s experienced duo of Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal did in their approach to chasing 217 runs, according to Kyle Jarvis. Instead, they were bowled out for 125, which left their path to the tri-series final in the hands of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Shakib and Tamim added 106 for the second wicket, spending half of the length of their partnership without boundaries. The pitch wasn’t conducive to stroke-making as was evident by more boundary droughts throughout the game. But Zimbabwe lost four wickets in the first 10 overs, after Sikandar Raza tried hard to single-handedly bring the chase back in order. When he was eighth out, the chase was effectively over.

Jarvis said Zimbabwe would now have to rely on the home side to beat Sri Lanka by a certain margin to ensure that Zimbabwe go through, and that this wait for another team to do their job wasn’t desirable.

“The way Tamim and Shakib batted, hitting the ball along the ground, gave themselves a chance. They got some runs. That’s what we needed,” Jarvis said. “We needed two or three batters to get in and give themselves a chance. We let ourselves down big time, we should never have been bowled out for 125.

He continued: “The moment you lose three early wickets, it is going to be really difficult to get those runs, especially with the class of bowlers Bangladesh have. I think a few guys will be asking tough questions of themselves. It is going to go down to run-rates. Hopefully Bangladesh can do us a favour in the next game. We shouldn’t have left it in someone else’s hands. We should have done it ourselves. We wish Bangladesh good luck in the next game.”

Jarvis, who took three wickets in Zimbabwe’s impressive bowling display, said that if on January 25, Zimbabwe get knocked out of this tournament, they have to look forward to five ODIs against Afghanistan before they launch the World Cup qualifiers at home in March.

“For us, it is about getting in the groove again,” he said. “This is going to be a good building block, especially going to Dubai next to play five games against Afghanistan. We have to try to get better as a squad. The win against Sri Lanka showed glimpses of what this team can do, so we have to take whatever positives we can get out of this and just keep building. It is a good group of players despite what we have shown out there.”