England seek important win in Bristol

In some ways, the match between England and Zimbabwe in Bristol has become a semi-final for the NatWest Series. With their win over Zimbabwe in Cardiff, South Africa have made substantial claims for one of the final places, while the outcome of the match in Bristol might well have serious implications for the losers.

Just as England were expected to beat Zimbabwe in the two previous meetings in the tournament, they should expect to prevail this time. However, despite those earlier expectations of victory, they find themselves still searching for a win against the side which seems to make a habit of saving its best performances for occasions when England are the opposition. In those other meetings, Zimbabwe won reasonably comfortably at Trent Bridge in the opening match while the weather washed away any prospect of a result at Headingley.

So now this has become something of a must win match for England. They could lose and then beat South Africa under the Edgbaston lights on Tuesday and rely on South Africa beating Zimbabwe again in the final qualifying match and still reach the final. On the other hand, a win in Bristol would make life very much easier.

Whether they achieve that or not depends largely on whether they can get a significant contribution from their middle order. Robert Key has been released to play for Kent in the National League, indicating that the selectors do not think he is the answer to England's problems. Quite whether it the personnel or the batting order that is resulting in too many collapses remains to be seen but, for their own peace of mind, the management will be hoping to find a solution at the earliest possible opportunity.

There should be no lack of atmosphere in Bristol with all bar the last few seats sold to guarantee a capacity 13,500 crowd. The boundaries have been brought in to accommodate the extra seating to satisfy demand to witness Bristol's sixth one-day international.

Zimbabwe captain Heath Streak is unhappy about having to travel from Cardiff to Bristol for back-to-back matches and has the support of ICC General Manager - Corporate Affairs, Brendan McClements. He said: ""The ICC's guideline on back-to-back games is that they should be avoided." However, he went on to say: "In relation to the games this weekend, clearly the England and Wales Cricket Board and the Zimbabwe Cricket Union have agreed that scheduling such matches in this case was unavoidable."

In view of what has gone before in this series, perhaps the Zimbabwe captain could regard the scheduling as something of a handicap - just to level things up a bit.