Windies will have to be smarter in Zimbabwe, says Stuart Law

Stuart LawThe Windies coach Stuart Law has said his side will have to be smarter in approach in the International Cricket Council ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2018 which will produce two sides that will complete the 10team lineup for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 to be played in England and Wales from May 30 to July 14 It is not going to be making 300 plus and then bowling teams out It is going to be working out how to get to 180 to 220 and then deciding how to get the 10 wickets To be honest the wickets in the warmup matches werent as conducive as we want to play and so just have to come up with different ways to go about it said Law in HarareWe do target 300plus as we found in New Zealand thats probably a benchmark score these days in OneDay Internationals Here we have to lower that target just to make sure we are safe to play better cricket or make better decisions out in the middle and get the job done Law added The Windies along with Afghanistan Ireland and Zimbabwe had missed out on automatic qualification for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 by finishing outside the top eight on the MRF Tyres ICC One Day International ODI Team Rankings at the September 30 2017 cutoff dateThe four sides have been joined by Hong Kong the Netherlands Nepal Scotland Papua New Guinea and the United Arab Emirates The ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier begins on March 4 and the Windies will play their opening match against the United Arab Emirates the side which nearly beat them in the second warmup match on Thursday The strength of lot of Associate teams is based around spin and the quicks they have seem to be pretty reasonable as well We cant just go out and blast and dominate against these attacks We have to be a little smarter to go about itOur bowlers have been consistently taking wickets upfront and we have a good mix of offspin leftarm spin and legspin I think it is a wellbalanced attack that we take into each game Our quicks are a bit more capable of getting the ball up at high speed which the Associates dont probably get to see a lot of and this is something that we can use to our advantage As the event will progress the wickets will spin more and we have quality spinners as wellLaw who played one Test and 54 ODIs for Australia from 1994 to 1999 valued the presence of stalwarts like Chris Gayle Marlon Samuels and Nikita Miller in the side saying it was up to the youngsters to observe and learn from these players You cant buy experience on a shelf You need these guys in these tough conditions to stand up as well and guide the youngsters through the difficult periods Then it is just up to the younger or less experienced players to listen heed the advice and carry forward into their gameAfghanistan coach Phil Simmons who played in 26 Tests and 143 ODIs for the Windies from 1987 to 1999 shrugged off the favourites tag when he said I am not putting the favourites tag on me We have just come here to play cricket we need to play proper cricket and win this tournament I am one of those who want to win all the time and I think these guys are the same So the more we will win the easier it will get for us in the Super Six stage You win the Super Six stage you are in the World Cup as well as in the final Thats how we look at itAfghanistan will take on Scotland in their opening match at the Bulawayo Athletic Club on Sunday March 4 and Simmons admitted he was not fully satisfied with his sides performance in the warmup matches We havent done a lot of things we wanted to do in the warmup matches But at the same time the boys have been sharp in Sharjah and I am sure the sharpness is still there maybe a bit of jetlag but we will get there Hopefully we will be able to put everything together come SundayAll of us are looking forward to the tournament Its good that it is being held in high esteem but you have to come out and do it We had two good outings in the warmup games and now its about business So we are looking forward to Sunday The UAE head coach Dougie Brown who played 25 ODIs and two T20Is for England from 1997 to 2007 refused to predict the finalists saying the warmups have shown that any team can beat any teamIt is going to be one hell of a ride in this tournament Teams are going to be flying by the seat of their pants for a lot of it There is going to be some weather around and that is going to affect teams and the decisionmaking that people make because pressure does funny things to you We try to take pressure off but to give you the two teams to qualify for the World Cup I couldnt because it is that close The UAE will face PNG on Sunday March 4 at the Harare Sports Club and will then take on the Windies at the Old Hararians on Tuesday March 6Brown said his sides first priority will be to retain the ODI status Obviously we come here as a lowerranked side and it would be wrong of us to just say that we are going to qualify for the World Cup There are four Test nations here they are probably and quite rightly thinking they have World Cup qualification very much in their hands But for us retaining the ODI status is very important In order to do that we have to qualify for the Super Six That said there is a little bit of dream and all of us believe we might qualify for the World CupObviously at this stage a lot of cricket has to be played and we have to play exceptionally well but we have seen so far in the warmup games everybody can beat everybody in this tournament and all we need to do is to get on the right side of good fortune make sure the players are playing well which they are have the confidence and maybe create a little bit of momentum and who knows But retaining the ODI status is very much forefront of the thought but whos to say we cant qualify for the World CupCatch up on all the latest sports news and updates hereDownload the new midday Android and iOS apps to get updates on all the latest and trending stories on the go