World Cup Qualifiers: Possible scenarios for 2019 World Cup qualification

The 2018 ICC World Cup qualifiers are already giving the World Cup finals a tough competition in terms of excitement and competitiveness. The tournament has gone all the way to the last match to decide which team will be travelling to England in the Summer of 2019 to take part in the World Cup.

Before the start of the final round Super Six matches, Zimbabwe just needed a win over UAE to make it to the World Cup and the winner of West Indies-Scotland match would have accompanied the hosts to the extravaganza.

After West Indies somehow managed to sneak into the World Cup after a narrow win over the Scots, Zimbabwe just needed to get the better of UAE. After choosing to bowl first, Zimbabwe restricted UAE to 235/7 after 47.5 overs before rain played spoilsport. After a brief delay, the hosts were set a DLS target of 230 in 40 overs for a win.

They started the chase in a disastrous manner as they lost Solomon Mire, Hamilton Masakadza and Brendan Taylor early. Peter Moor, Sean Ervine and Sikander Raza tried to pull things back and they almost took their team home. But, they kept losing wickets towards the end and UAE managed to cause a huge upset by beating the hosts by three runs. With this, Zimbabwe have all but lost the World Cup spot.

This result also opens the gate for Afghanistan and Ireland, who are taking on each other in the final Super Six game on March 23. Before the start of the last round, this match was seen as a dead rubber, but now, the winner of this match will take everything and make their way to the World Cup. Zimbabwe, on the other hand, can still qualify as well.

Let us take a look at the possible scenarios and see which team can qualify for the World Cup depending upon the result of Afghanistan-Ireland game.

If Ireland win: Ireland will qualify

If Afghanistan win: Afghanistan will qualify

If the match ends in a tie: Zimbabwe will qualify

If the match is washed out: Ireland will qualify

Here's how the Super Six table looks with just one game left to be played! A win for Ireland or Afghanistan will take them into the #CWCQ final and to #CWC19 alongside West Indies! pic.twitter.com/GmgHkcowRO

— Cricket World Cup (@cricketworldcup) March 22, 2018