Records tumble at Harare Sports Club

THERE was total carnage in the first innings of Zimbabwe’s match against the United States of America (USA) earlier today at Harare Sports Club.

Records tumbled in the country’s ceremonial home of cricket. From team records to individual scores. Zimbabwean batters, particularly Sean Williams made light work of USA bowlers, literally.

Four hundred runs have been scored on Zimbabwean soil in a one day match and what better way to get there than a six. There is nothing more a coach could ask for from his batting unit. The Chevrons finished on 408/6 in 50 overs, their highest ever score in the format.

In the commentary box, Chevrons great, Andy Flower said he hopes the American players learnt something from the way Williams, the architect of the innings played. If ever there was any doubt about Williams’ status as one of Zimbabwe’s greatest, the question has been answered.

Going into today’s match, Williams was no where near the top 10 highest individual scores in ODIs for Zimbabwe, but by the time he walked back to the pavilion in the 49th over, he was holding the third highest score, behind Hamilton Masakadza (178 not out) and Charles Coventry (194 not out).

Williams, standing in as the skipper for Craig Ervine, top scored with 174 runs from 101 deliveries. His score surpassed those of the likes of Craig Wishart, Andy Flower, Grant Flower, and Brendan Taylor, among others.

He was not the only one who stood face first with history. Ryan Burl fell one hit short of equaling AB De Villiers’ fastest half century in the history of ODI cricket (16 balls). Burl was caught on 47 runs off 15 deliveries. Sikandar Raza fell two runs short off his half century on 48 runs from 27 balls.

Zimbabwe’s 408 became the highest total at Harare Sports Club and also surpassed their previous best ODI score of 351 runs they scored against Kenya in 2009 in Mombasa.

The USA is facing a huge mountain in the second innings of the match.

Zimbabwe has become the seventh nation to scored 400 plus runs in ODIs. The other six are South Africa, India, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, England and Australia. – @brandon_malvin