HARARE – Zimbabwe cricket coach Alan Butcher is confident of causing an upset in today’s ICC World Twenty20 opener against Sri Lanka only if the players  can believe in themselves.

The tournament gets underway at 15.30pm today with Zimbabwe taking on the host nation in a Group C opener at Hambantota. Zimbabwe will wind up their group stage games with a date against fellow Southern African side South Africa on Thursday at the same venue.

“To cause an upset we have to take wickets with the new ball which we are capable of, keep control during the middle part of the innings and then execute our yorkers and slower balls at the death,” Butcher told the Daily News from Sri Lanka.

“There has been lots of work going into these areas and oh above all; we need to believe we can win.”

Zimbabwe’s warm up encounters ended in defeats against Ireland and Bangladesh, but the British born-coach was impressed with the improved performance against the Tigers last Saturday despite losing the match by five wickets.

“Performance against Bangladesh was much improved and the squad has trained well as we get more used to the conditions. Still a bit short of runs but on the bright side we haven’t wasted any and the bowling is getting better daily,” he said.