da fezbet： Zimbabwe entered their final match in the first round of theirinaugural triangular tournament knowing they had to beat West Indieshandsomely, and then have India beat West Indies in Wednesday’s match,to reach the final
John Ward01-Jul-2001Zimbabwe entered their final match in the first round of theirinaugural triangular tournament knowing they had to beat West Indieshandsomely, and then have India beat West Indies in Wednesday’s match,to reach the final. But, in a fluctuating match where they almostovercame the severe disadvantage of losing the toss, they went down byfive wickets in the final over.It was another clear winter’s morning in Bulawayo as Zimbabwe lost thetoss once again and were put in to bat. They did have some much-neededgood news as Heath Streak was fit to play again.Zimbabwe again lost a quick wicket as Dion Ebrahim (1) fished outsidethe off stump to Cameron Cuffy, again bowling superbly, and was caughtat the wicket. Stuart Carlisle announced his arrival at the creasewith a sweetly timed four to square leg but was then caught at slip byChris Gayle off Collymore without addition. At 9 for two, Zimbabweonce again had their backs to the wall and the suitability of wintercricket in Zimbabwe was being called into question. On the evidence sofar, the pitches tend to be too sluggish and give an inordinateadvantage to the side bowling first, more through unexpected swing inthe cold morning air, perhaps moistened by dew, that laterdisappeared.Alistair Campbell (17) looked good for a while, but then Cuffy struckagain, having him caught at second slip, Gayle again. Craig Wishart,so often underestimated and neglected by the selectors, stood in thebreach as he had on Wednesday, batting with fine discrimination andthe occasional powerful drive or pull.Wishart went to his fifty off 67 balls with a drive to the coverboundary and, with Cuffy having bowled out his ten overs for 30 runsand two wickets and the conditions yielding no further help to thebowling side, the West Indian attack suddenly began to look quiteinnocuous. Flower ran to his fifty with a reverse sweep to theboundary, and the pair added 126 before Wishart (71) uppercut Dillonto be caught at third man. Zimbabwe were 153 for four.Guy Whittall came in and played his usual improvised strokes, the pairlofting the ball skillfully into the gaps and running like haresbetween the wickets. Whittall offered a couple of difficult chancesthat went down, while Flower played some superb shots, including twosixes into the crowd, but was caught on the long-on boundary offDillon for 94, scored off 107 balls.Zimbabwe finished with 255 for five (Whittall 39*, Andy Blignaut 12*),a remarkable recovery after such a dismal start. Their middle orderhad given them a good chance of victory after all; now it was up totheir bowlers to complete the job, and by a good margin.Unfortunately, Zimbabwe’s performance in the field was patchy. Streakerred in direction and there were some minor but unnecessary lapses inthe field. To add to their problems, they were playing only fivefront-line bowlers, including Grant Flower, and lost Brian Murphyearly on when he injured himself in the field. Alistair Campbell’soccasional off-spin was soon required. Against this, Daren Ganga andespecially Gayle played a sensible game of accumulation, developinginto aggressive strokeplay with the Zimbabweans powerless to put abrake on them.Gayle’s fifty came up off 61 balls, but soon afterwards he lost Ganga(34), sent back and coming off second-best to fine fielding byBlignaut. Gayle eventually fell for 76, skying a catch to midwicketoff Flower, but at 137 for two West Indies were more than halfwaythere.Wavell Hinds and Shivnarine Chanderpaul shared a solid partnership,but West Indies were imperceptibly falling behind the required scoringrate; about eight an over were now needed. Chanderpaul (24) sufferedan unlucky dismissal when he swept at Campbell and lost his grip onhis bat, which hurtled straight into his stumps, giving a hit-wicketdismissal.Carl Hooper immediately came close to running himself out in hiseagerness to get off the mark, and the batsmen reached the boundary attimes, but Hinds fell for 54, slashing at Streak and edging to thekeeper. West Indies were now under pressure as Hooper and RidleyJacobs gradually improved the situation against some superb fieldinguntil 19 were needed off the final three overs.At this point Streak made an unexpected but inspired bowling change,bringing back Flower who struck immediately, as Hooper (24) holed outat long-off. But it was not quite enough and, in a frenetic final overbowled by Streak, West Indies scraped home with one ball to spare,Jacobs hitting the winning boundary to finish with 20.