At the halfway stage of the qualifying process, Sri Lanka occupy second position in the table with five points, from their bonus point victory over Monday’s opponents in the opening fixture of the tournament.
While Zimbabwe sit at the foot of the three team ladder with the two points that they secured in the dramatic tied game against the West Indies on Saturday, in the first game of the competition to be played in Bulawayo.
Should Sri Lanka win Match 4 then they will secure their place in next Sunday’s final in Bulawayo. A result that would leave Zimbabwe needing the Asian country to beat the West Indies, and then inflicting a significantly heavy defeat on the men from the Caribbean themselves.
A Zimbabwe success against Sri Lanka would open up the tournament, leaving all three sides in with a chance of progressing to the final. If the hosts do manage to record a win, it will be just their second win against Sri Lanka since April 2003, the previous success being in Harare in June 2010.
On Saturday, Zimbabwe had done much to bring about their own downfall. When they batted, they collapsed from 190-2 with nearly a dozen overs remaining, losing their last eight wickets for just 67 runs, and just about batting out their full 50 overs. The first time that they have managed the feat in eight ODI matches in 2016.
Regulation catches were then put down in the field, with the perfect illustration of how they fail to help themselves occurred in the 40th over, when Williams was called for a no-ball, as he had five men inside the fielding circle.
It required an Astonishing last over by Donald Tiripano, in which the West Indies lost three wickets, and scored only three of the four runs needed for victory, that secured the tie, which just about kept Zimbabwe’s hopes of making the final alive.