dyton mupawaenda
Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE’S dismal Super Six show at the 2024 ICC Men’s Under-19 cricket World Cup will be remembered for Saturday’s drama as England batter Hamza Shaikh was given out and obstructed the field.
England condemned Zimbabwe to a 12th-place finish at the tournament with a dominant 146-run victory while defending a modest 237/7.
Zimbabwe were bowled out for 91 in 24.5 overs with only two batsmen getting double figures — opener and topscorer Panashe Taruvinga with 38 in 61 balls and Campbell MacMillan with 10 runs in 14 balls in the middle order.
There were nine scores of single digits, including four zeros.
The humiliation would have been worse had the English bowlers been disciplined as they gave away 24 extras in 25 overs, 20 of them wides and that was the second-highest contribution to Zimbabwe’s small total.
With the defeat, Zimbabwe finished bottom of the 12-team Super Six with zero points from two matches and left the tournament with just one victory against minnows Namibia and losses against Sri Lanka, Australia, South Africa, and England.
In Saturday’s final match which Zimbabwe needed to win to finish in the Top 10, they won the toss and decided to field.
In the 17th over, Shaikh defended a ball down by his feet, and Zimbabwe wicketkeeper Ryan Kamwemba started to come from behind the stumps to collect it.
Then, with the ball stationary in the crease, Shaikh bent down to pick it up to pass it back to the fielders, as is often seen from batters.
Kamwemba and the bowler, Ryan Simbi, led the appeal and it was sent upstairs by on-field officials Donovan Koch and Masudur Rahman where third umpire Nigel Duguid gave it out.
Previously it would have been handling the ball, but that mode of dismissal was combined with obstructing the field in 2017 with MCC saying they were effectively the same thing.
The relevant Law, 37.4, reads: “Either batter is out Obstructing the field if, at any time while the ball is in play and, without the consent of a fielder, he/she uses the bat or any part of his/her person to return the ball to any fielder”.
Unsurprisingly, there was reaction on social media. “Oh get a grip,” Stuart Broad posted on X. “He’s passing a stationary ball back to the fielder? Doing him a favour! Can’t give that out.”
Sam Billings retweeted a video of the dismissal, simply adding: “Wow.”
Late last year Mushfiqur Rahim was given out and obstructed the field in a Test against New Zealand when he punched a delivery away after defending it down into the crease.
Just like the senior national team, the Zimbabwe batting was very poor and in the five matches at the tournament, they did not reach 30 overs in all the four matches they lost.
In the first match against Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe were all out in 21.1 overs while against Australia they lasted 23.2 overs, and then 29.2 overs against South Africa before Saturday’s 24.5 against England.
In the victory over Namibia, Zimbabwe reached their target in 35.3 overs.
Taruvinga was the only Zimbabwe batsman to score a half-century and accumulate more than 100 runs in the five innings of the tournament as he made 108 runs at an average of 27.
The bowling performance was much better as they took 30 wickets in five matches with Newman Takudzwa Nyamhuri leading the haul with eight followed by Simbi with six, Kohl Eksteen and captain Mathew Schonken with five each, Anesu Kamuriwo with three, Brendan Sunguro two and Taruvinga with one.
Coach Prosper Utseya will leave the post amid reports he secured a job for development cricket in the United States.- Additional report from ESPN Cricinfo
Peter Tanyanyiwa
Online Reporter