Make-or-break for the Windies

Two-time champions West Indies will be looking to get their T20 World Cup campaign back on track with a win over an in-form Zimbabwe in their group-stage clash, while Scotland will eye to solidify their Super 12 bid with a win against Ireland at the Blundstone Arena in Bellerive, Australia today.

The Caribbeans failed to show up for the party as they were shell-shocked in the opening fixture, suffering a 42-run defeat against Scotland on Monday and will face a stiff challenge against a confident Zimbabwe, who are in a rich vein of form as they have won eight of their last nine T20Is in 2022.

With two wins in their last 11 matches in the shortest format, a new-look West Indies side without stalwarts such as Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, and Dwayne Bravo have not been able to get their A-game up and running yet.

In the first match against the Scots, the Caribbeans failed to execute their big hits as they fell to the stranglehold of the Scottish spinners. The spin trio of Mark Watt, Michael Leask, and Brad Wheal picked up seven wickets amongst themselves using their orthodox spin.

"We didn't bat well. We were four down by the tenth over and that's not ideally where we need to be in a given T20 match. We've got to really set it up better for the back half to really prosper," Holder said while pointing out the failure in their batting efforts in the first game.

The West Indian batters struggled against the street-smarts of the Scottish spinners, which is something that the Zimbabwean bowlers might be looking to exploit.

Zimbabwe, with the return of speedster Blessing Muzarabani, have considerable variety in their bowling ranks. Richard Ngarava and Tendai Chatara offer the left and right options with the new ball along with Luke Jongwe, while at least three spinners -- Sikandar Raza, Sean Williams, and Ryan Burl, all different from each other, remain available.

Meanwhile, Scotland will be eyeing consecutive wins as they take on neighbouring Ireland in their second match at the same venue. The Scottish will be hoping to repeat their impressive group-stage outing in the previous edition in 2021 with another Super 12 qualification.

The Irish, on the other hand, are fresh off a defeat against Zimbabwe, and will be aiming to keep qualification hopes alive with a win against Scotland.