MELBOURNE: All-rou­nder Ravichandran Ashwin said Saturday India must pile the pressure on early and be clinical in their execution if they want to get past Zimb­abwe and into the Twenty20 World Cup semi-finals.

The two sides meet at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Sunday after India’s narrow five-run win over Bangl­adesh put them top of Group 2 with six points from four games. They will power into the last four with a victory over the Africans.

On the flip side, they could still be caught if beaten, depending on the outcome of Sunday’s other games, in which South Africa face the Netherlands and Pakistan take on Bangladesh.

“Simple, we need to be as clinical as possible. No teams are a brush over [in this tournament],” said Ashwin. “We have to go out there and counter that early phase with the bat and still bowl those good bowls to generate pressure.

“Good teams will be clinical and pile the pressure on and it’s a must-win contest, we know that. We’re looking forward to the game. But Zimbabwe have played some wonderful cricket so we can’t go in there and expect them to crumble. They’ve bowled well and batted well and we respect that.”

Zimbabwe played giant-killers by beating Pakistan in their Super 12 clash but crashed out of the tournament with a deflating defeat to the Netherlands.

Zimbabwe captain Craig Ervine said the chance to take the wicket of India’s talismanic batsman Virat Kohli should be motivation enough for his bowlers.

“How often do you get the opportunity to put Virat Kohli in your pocket?” he asked. “I’m pretty sure that our fast bowlers will be raring to go come tomorrow.

“Obviously with the win against Pakistan, it’s given us a huge amount of belief that we can beat any side in the tournament. I don’t think that will change going into tomorrow’s game.”

Published in Dawn, November 6th, 2022