Captains motivated to finish on high

There was jubilation from both the Windies and Afghanistan camps after they sealed the two highly coveted spots at next year’s ICC World Cup. But even with the main mission accomplished in Zimbabwe, neither captain is taking Sunday’s final lightly.

“I’m extremely happy and pleased that we’ve qualified,” said Windies captain Jason Holder. “I think we’ve done everything in our power to qualify as well – we’ve topped our group, we’ve topped the Super Sixes, we’ve got a good net run rate, we’ve had good individual performances as well. I’m really pleased with the team’s progress – going into this last game I think we just need to be disciplined in all three departments. I still don’t think we’ve played the perfect game yet so our challenge is to play the perfect game. That’s the challenge I threw out to the guys.

“Our preparation was pretty good leading into this tournament and we’ve played good cricket. I don’t see the point in playing so well up to this point and then going through the motions so everybody’s up for it and we’re really looking forward to the challenge.”

West Indies have won six out of their seven matches in the tournament, their only defeat coming at the hands of Afghanistan in the Super Sixes, who completed a miraculous recovery to reach the final after a disastrous start to the tournament.

Afghanistan’s five-wicket win over Ireland, coupled with Zimbabwe’s failure to beat the United Arab Emirates on Thursday, has ensured their place in the final. And skipper Ashgar Stanikzai, whose early return from surgery following appendicitis has freed up star leg-spinner Rashid Khan, and re-inspired his team, is keen to finish on a high.

“Every final is important for each team. I think tomorrow's match will be a mini World Cup for Afghanistan. Tomorrow's game is very important for both the teams, especially for Afghanistan because Afghanistan's people want the trophy every time, not just the qualifier. Inshallah tomorrow we play good and positive cricket and we will play for the cup."

He also reflected on what had gone wrong early in the tournament, when Afghanistan lost matches to Scotland, Zimbabwe and Hong Kong.

“The main thing I think was the captain problem. When you are captaining for three-four years and then you have a new captain, the captaincy varies and the pressure came on the team. I believe our players played very well in the first round also but the lack of experience was a big problem at the ground. That I think was the main problem.”