Online Reporter
Tinashe Kusema
Zimpapers Sports Hub
AS largely expected, Zimbabwe yesterday booked their place at next year’s ICC T20 World Cup to be co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka.
Fellow favourites Namibia also punched their ticket to the World Cup after winning their semi-final.
Focus was, however, always on hosts Zimbabwe in their semi-final clash against Kenya.
The Chevrons ensured they did not disappoint this time, bouncing back to the global stage with an impressive seven-wicket victory over Kenya.
This will be the seventh time the Chevrons will be participating at the biennial T20 global competition.
Of the nine editions of the competition since its inception back in 2007, Zimbabwe have only missed two.
They withdrew from the 2009 edition and failed to qualify for the 2024 competition.
Zimbabwe currently have an 8-11 win/loss record at the competition with their best coming from the 2022 edition where they went as far as the Super 12.
The Chevrons yesterday marked their return to the global stage when they made lightwork of Kenya in a wildly one-sided affair.
Once again, Brian Bennett was the star of the show as the 21-year-old scored his third half-century of the competition.
This is on top of his maiden T20 century (111 runs off 53 balls) against Tanzania on Tuesday, which makes him one of the standout performers for Zimbabwe during the qualifiers.
Kenya won the toss after which they elected to bat and were restricted to 126 runs for six during their allotted 20 overs.
The East Africans owe a lot of credit to top-order batter Rakep Patel whose 65 runs off 47 balls helped them some runs on the board.
Zimbabwe’s bowlers put up quite the shift as runs were hard to come by and wickets fell at regular intervals.
Blessing Muzarabani was the pick of the Zimbabwe bowlers with two wickets for 19 runs, while Bradley Evans, Richard Ngarava and Tinotenda Maposa each chipped with a wicket apiece.
Patel found assistance from Sachin Gill and Jasraj Kundi who chipper with 19 runs off 21 balls and an unbeaten 13 runs off 14 balls respectively.
However, 122 runs was, hardly the defendable score and Zimbabwe made light work of the 123-run target.
Tadiwanashe Marumani and Bennett put 76 runs for the first wicket partnership in a show of explosive and decisive hitting.
Bennett was the clear aggressor on his way to 51 runs off 25 with his knock featuring eight boundaries and two sixes.
He eventually lost his wicket in the sixth over when he was caught at long on by Jasraj Kundi off the bowling of Vraj Patel.
Marumani soon followed as his knock ended on 39 runs off 27 balls, but the damage had already been done as he left Zimbabwe on 100 for two.
Zimbabwe lost one more wicket, Sikandar Raza (10) as the duo of Ryan Burl and Tony Manyonga saw Zimbabwe home.
Burl and Manyonga finished unbeaten on 17 runs off 15 balls and three runs off five balls respectively.
After the match, Zimbabwe skipper Sikandar Raza insisted that the Chevrons had fought for their win as they could not leave anything to chance.
“The thing is, just because we were expecting and expected to win, it doesn’t mean it’s going to happen.
“We still have to do a lot of right things to get the job done.
“Now, I am sitting here and can certainly say that I’m a very proud captain.
“We have qualified for the World Cup.
“And it is relieving because I know it wasn’t much to do with the skills, it was just to deal with those demons of the past.
“Now, we put them to bed now, and now we are on our way to Sri Lanka and India, and I can’t be anymore proud.
“Also, I think this country and the cricket fans, I think they deserve a bit of happiness as well.
“In the same breath, I want to mention that we have rugby boys going to the World Cup as well, so at least our people, our fans, will have a lot more world stage representation of Zimbabwe, which they can enjoy,” he said.
Namibia also booked their place at next year’s T20 World Cup after beating Tanzania by 63 runs to maintain their perfect run in the tournament.
Tanzania won the toss and elect to field after which Namibia 174 for six in their allotted 20 overs.
Two half-centuries by skipper Gerhard Erasmus and JJ Smit helped the Southern African side post a competitive total after the Tanzanian bowlers had left them reeling at 44 for four during the powerplay.
Smit top scored for the Namibian with an unbeaten 61 runs off 43 balls while Erasmus made 55 runs off 41 balls.
The duo of Khalidy Amiri Juma and Ally Kimote were the pick of the Tanzanian bowlers as they each picked up two wickets apiece.
Juma finished with two for 39 runs while Kimote had two for 41 runs.
Chasing 175 runs, Tanzania failed to get close to the target as wickets fell frequently and at regular intervals.
Only five batters managed double digit figures with top-order batter Abhik Patwa top-scoring for Tanzania with 31 runs off 31 balls while fellow opener Arun Yadav and Mukesh Suthar chipping in with 17b runs off 19 balls and 24 runs off 20 balls respectively.
