Bad day in the office for Chevrons

Eddie Chikamhi Senior Sports Reporter

ALL-rounder Luke Jongwe concluded it was a bad day in the office for Zimbabwe yesterday after the Chevrons fell to the West Indies by 31 runs and left them facing a tricky finish to the ICC Men’s T20 Cricket World Cup group games in Australia.

The Chevrons were blown out for 122 runs in 18.2 overs under the lights at the Bellerive Oval in Hobart, despite having done well earlier on to restrict the West Indies to 153/7 in their 20 overs.

Sikandar Raza did most of the damage with the ball with figures of 3-19 in his four overs. But then the West Indies’ paceman Alzarri Joseph did it better with the ball when he took 4-16 and shifted the pendulum in favour of the Windies.

Jongwe top-scored for Zimbabwe with 29 runs from 22 deliveries at the back end of the innings, on a day many of the Chevrons’ big guns failed to fire.

Zimbabwe have been playing a positive brand of cricket of late but they somehow got deflated yesterday. The 27-year-old all-rounder conceded during the post-match conference it was not their day.

“We didn’t really change much. I think we just tried doing what we have been doing in the previous games. Today it’s one of those days where we just didn’t click,” said Jongwe.

“I think we just didn’t have a good partnership. We needed probably a 50-60 plus run partnership to get us home but then we didn’t do that. It was just bits and pieces.”

The West Indies won the toss and opted to bat first. They got off to a good start, getting 49 runs for the loss of one wicket in the power play overs. But Zimbabwe applied the brakes on their progress during the middle overs when they threw in their spin attack.

The decision paid dividends as West Indies slipped to 101/6 at the end of the 14th over. The slump was significant as Zimbabwe got four wickets for just 11 runs in a space of 10 balls to turn the game in their favour.

But a well-struck 45 from the opening batsman Johnson Charles was key for the Caribbean side to build a defendable total despite the middle order collapse.

The West Indies still managed to finish strongly and had two big overs at the death that gave them something firm to defend.

The chase looked attainable for Zimbabwe who needed 154 runs at a rate of 7.70 per over. Zimbabwe had a bright start in the chase, scoring 27 runs in the first two overs. But then wickets started tumbling and the trend continued before they were finally blown away for 122 runs in 18.2 overs.

The batsmen found it hard with the pace variation from the West Indies bowlers. Man of the Match Joseph was the chief destroyer with impressive figures 4-16 while experienced bowling all-rounder Jason Holder also weighed in with a critical spell of 3-12.

Zimbabwe had a changed opening partnership yesterday after skipper Craig Ervine sat out in the wake of a mild asthma attack.

They raked up 18 runs in the first over by Kyle Mayers and 11 runs in the next by Akeal Hosein. But the introduction of Joseph changed things as the tall quick picked up two wickets in his first two overs.

Obed McCoy added another in the last over of the Powerplay and Zimbabwe were suddenly in a spot of bother. With Regis Chakabva (13), Tony Munyonga (2) who had replaced Ervine, Sean Williams (1) and Wessly Madhevere (27) gone, it appeared Zimbabwe would need to turn to Raza again for redemption.

The all-rounder, who struck an impressive 82 runs in the first game against Ireland, came out all guns blazing, smashing a six early in his innings but could not quite replicate his heroics from the opening match.

Raza had a promising start, racing to 14 runs from just eight balls, after hitting a boundary and a six.

“I think it was one of those games when Raza went out; we needed 70-80 runs and we could have gotten a better way. But we have a good coach (Dave Houghton) who has been telling us to play positive cricket. We have been trying to do that and it just didn’t come through today.

“Dave has been trying to make us play our best cricket, everyone, rather than being in a shell. I think it just didn’t work out today,” said Jongwe.

Zimbabwe face Scotland in their last Group B match tomorrow while Ireland face West Indies. The group is delicately balanced with all teams on two points ahead of the must-win last games.

All the teams are also looking out for the weather conditions as there is a 60 percent chance of precipitation in the forecast for Friday.

“We are here to win and not to play the rain card or anything. If Friday comes and we are able to play, we are just going out there and play to win more than bank on the rains,” said Jongwe.

The net run rate could be a huge factor, though. Zimbabwe are currently sitting second on the log standings while Scotland lead. West Indies are in third place, followed by Ireland.

Zimbabwe beat Ireland by 31 runs in their first match while West Indies crashed to a shock 42 runs loss to Scotland in the opening match of Group B.

But it’s all square in the group after Ireland beat Scotland by six wickets yesterday.

Scorecard Summary:

West Indies beat Zimbabwe by 31 runs

West Indies 153-7 in 20 overs (Johnson Charles 45, Rovman Powell 28, Akeal Hosein 23*; Sikandar Raza 3/19, Blessing Muzarabani 2/38, Sean Williams 1/17)

Zimbabwe 122 in 18.2 overs (Luke Jongwe 29, Wessly Madhevere 27, Ryan Burl 17; Alzarri Joseph 4-16, Jason Holder 3-12)