Vusumuzi Dube
Brandon Moyo, Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE managed to get a sweet revenge for their 2018 defeat at the hands of the West Indies when they overcame the Caribbean side by 35 runs in the 2023 Men’s Cricket World Cup Qualifiers at a fully packed Harare Sports Club yesterday.
Once again, fans had to be turned away from the venue as Zimbabwe Cricket’s fortress was now packed to the brim. West Indies won the toss and elected to field first and managed to restrict the Chevrons to 268 all out before the home side bowled them out for 233 runs in 44,4 overs.
The last time the two sides met in a similar tournament, the Windies emerged as six-wicket victors, a win that was a huge dent to Zimbabwe’s hopes of making it to England for the global showpiece in 2019.
Yesterday’s victory put Dave Houghton’s men on course of being one of the two teams that will book their place in this year’s edition of the World Cup that will be held in India.
Scoring 268 runs in the first innings, the Zimbabwean skipper, Craig Ervine felt like they were a few runs short of the score they would have been happy with. However, his bowlers came in good and delivered the massive victory over the Daren Sammy coached Windies side.
The Chevrons have managed to find what could have been the good opening partnership between Ervine and Joylord Gumbie who have played a huge role in protecting the middle order from facing the new ball. Yesterday, the duo put up a 63-run partnership for the first wicket before Gumbie was trapped in front for leg before wicket on 26 runs off 50 balls. The skipper was caught three runs short of what could have been a well-played half century, falling on 47 runs from 58 balls.
Man of the moment, Sikandar Raza once again continued to etch his name in stone in Zimbabwe Cricket’s folklore, with another brilliant batting performance. The 37-year-old all-rounder continued where he left off in the previous match, top scoring for the Chevrons with 68 runs from 58 balls and was supported by Ryan Burl, who was batting for the first time in this tournament. Burl scored a half century and immediately fell after reaching his milestone, going back to the pavilion on 50 runs from 57 deliveries. The pair put up an 87-run partnership for the fifth wicket.
Sean Williams fell for 23 runs off 26 balls.Keemo Paul was the pick of the Windies bowlers, taking three for 61 runs in his 10-over spell while Alzarri Joseph, and Akeal Hosein took two scalps each, giving away 42 and 45 runs respectively. Zimbabwe’s bowling attack, led by the experienced Raza and fast bowler
Tendai Chatara was too hot for the Windies bowlers to handle.
The Chevrons got their first wicket in the seventh over, leaving their opponents on 43/1 at the completion of that over. The eighth over was a maiden and another breakthrough followed in the ninth, and the West Indies found themselves in trouble on 46/2.
In defending the score, Williams ended up as the captain after Ervine picked up a knock on the calf. Williams managed to get his bowling combinations right, which led to more wickets and effectively bowling out their opponents. Chatara had the best figures with the ball, finishing on 3/52 in 9,4 overs.
His performance was a good comeback after a poor show in the team’s first two games.
The eventual Player of the Match, Raza took two scalps and conceded 36 runs in eight overs and also had two catches under his name. The fast-bowling duo of Richard Ngarava and Blessing Muzarabani also took two wickets each, conceding 25 and 33 runs respectively. The other wicket that fell was taken by Wellington Masakadza.
Kyle Mayers top scored for West Indies with 56 runs from 72 balls while Roston Chase put up a gallant 44 runs off 53 deliveries. Nicholas Pooran and Shai Hope fell in the 30s, on 34 and 30 runs respectively.
“We did well not to lose those early wickets, it gave us a little bit of breathing space in the middle overs and towards the back end and we did get a few good partnerships together, Raza and Burl batted really well.
We did fear that we might be 20 or 30 (runs) short of probably what would have been a winning score,” said Ervine after the match.
His counterpart in the Windies camp, Hope, was disappointed with how things turned out, stating that they didn’t play their best cricket and they let themselves down. However, the tournament is still on and there is some work that needs to be done.
Zimbabwe is sitting on top of Group A with six points from a possible six and are followed by the Netherlands on four and West Indies sit in third with the same number of points as the Dutch. The three teams have already booked their places in the Super Six with the only remaining thing being the group’s final standings which will be official tomorrow.
The Chevrons round up their group campaign with a game against the United States of America (USA) at Harare Sports Club while the Dutch will be up against the Windies at Takashinga Cricket Club tomorrow. — @brandon_malvin
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