Online Reporter
Eddie Chikamhi-Zimpapers Sports Hub
ZIMBABWE’S opening batter Brian Bennett continued with his brilliant form at the ICC T20I Men’s World Cup but his knock was not enough to prevent a 72-run defeat against co-hosts India in a Super Eight match at the packed MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai last night.
The loss, their second in the Super Eight stage as well as in the entire tournament, effectively ended Zimbabwe’s slim hopes of sneaking into the semi-finals.
It was always going to be a tall order for the Zimbabweans after they had let India loose in the field, conceding 256/4 courtesy of untidy bowling and episodes of sloppiness in the field.
Bennett led the Chevrons’ fight back with the bat when he scored unbeaten 97 runs but Zimbabwe still fell short. On reflection, the Chevrons’ tally of 184/6 could have comfortably won them a match on any other day.
But they let themselves down big time on the field, after winning the toss and sending the Indians in to bat first.
Two half centuries from opening batter Abhishek Sharma (55) and Hardik Pandya (50) and the overall aggression from the entire batting line-up pushed India to the highest total at this T20 World Cup.
The Indians surpassed the 254/5 that the Chevrons conceded against the West Indies on Monday.
Zimbabwe skipper Sikandar Raza felt they should have at least tried to stop India from piling up such a colossal total, which in the end proved insurmountable.
“Yeah, certainly I think we could have executed our defensive plan slightly better as well. I think we ended up going at them with hammer and tongues and unfortunately there was a lot of mis-execution when we were bowling from all of that, and they ended up getting a lot of those runs, and once the train goes at that, it’s hard to bring it back.
“So, I thought if one thing I would say is I think we could have executed our defensive plans better, that would have given us a better chance to restrict them to maybe 210, 220 and you never know from there,” said Raza.
The defeat yesterday came on the back of a 107-runs rout by the West Indies on Monday. Zimbabwe now anchors Group One, and the honeymoon is certainly over, although they still have another match to play against South Africa on Sunday.
The Chevrons had raised expectations with a fairy-tale run from the group stages where they beat former champions Australia and co-hosts Sri Lanka and finish with a clean record on top of the pool.
But as was largely expected yesterday, the Indian batsmen came with an attacking format as they needed to bounce back from their defeat to South Africa and keep alive their hopes of progressing to the semi-finals.
They benefited from two dropped catches, with Tashinga Musekiwa and Blessing Muzarabani the culprits. The Chevrons yesterday made one change, bringing in Tinotenda Maposa for his T20 World Cup debut. The fast bowler replaced veteran leg spinner Graeme Cremer as Zimbabwe sought to add to their pace options. However, the nerves were showing from the first ball, finishing with one wicket at the expense of 40 runs from his two overs.
India batters were good against Zimbabwe, and they raced to 81/1 in the powerplay overs. The introduction of spin slowed the run fest for a moment but the Indians pressed on with their aggressive approach.
They lost their opening batter Sanju Samson, in the third over, with 48 runs already on the board. Muzarabani made the breakthrough for Zimbabwe. Musekiwa dropped Ishan Kishan on 26 runs after 9.1 overs, and India were 109/1 at the halfway stage. Kishan, nonetheless, was gone the next over, caught by Richard Ngarava off the bowling of Sikandar Raza.
Then Muzarabani dropped Suryakumar Yadav on eight runs as the ball slipped through his hands for a four at the backward square leg boundary.
India continued with their aggressive play, but Maposa sort of redeemed himself when he had the dangerman Ab-hishek Sharma caught for 55 runs. Sharma faced 30 balls for his half-century and smashed four boundaries and as many sixes.
Musekiwa also came in with a handy contribution when he took a good catch to dismiss Yadav (33 from 13 balls) from the bowling of Ngarava.
India continued to accelerate in the final overs with an unbeaten explosive 31-ball 84-run partnership between Har-dik Pandya (50 from 23) and Tilak Verma (44 from 16) to take the total way beyond the reach of the Zimbabweans.
To their credit the Chevrons openers Bennett and Tadiwanashe Marumani (20 from 20) got off to a cautious start.
Marumani was dropped on 17 by Rinku Singh as the Chevrons finished the powerplay overs with 44 runs for no loss.
However, Marumani could not capitalise on the second chance as he went out for 20 runs. All the while, Zimbabwe’s batters battled the scoreboard pressure as the required run rate kept mounting with each passing over. At the halfway stage, the required run rate had climbed above 18-an-over, with the scoreboard reading 73/2. Wick-ets continued to fall, but Zimbabwe fought to the very end and averted a total rout. Zimbabwe will play South Africa in their final Super Eight match on Sunday.
“Probably, I’m a guy who look at a lot of positives,” said Raza.
“I think for me the positive from today is the last game it was 250, and I felt there was a bit of panic and rush in our batting line-up.
“I always say that you cannot win the game in the first six overs, but you certainly can lose it if you’re chasing a big total. Today, I thought we were a lot more composed in the first six overs.
“We were trying to give ourselves a chance as well, and I thought the boys’ batting compared to the last game (against West Indies) is certainly to take a lot of positive and heart from and that’s what I’ll do,” said Raza.
