Zimbabwe in comfortable win over Nepal

CHEVRONS stars, Sean Williams and Craig Ervine put up brilliant performances with the bat to guide Zimbabwe to a comfortable eight-wicket win over Nepal in the opening match of the 2023 Men’s Cricket World Cup Qualifiers at Harare Sports Club yesterday.

The duo became the first to score centuries in the tournament as they remained undefeated with a 150 plus runs partnership for the third wicket. It was however, an extra special day for Sean Williams who scored the fastest century (70 balls) by a Zimbabwean in One Day Internationals (ODIs) in what was his 150th match for the Chevrons.

For Ervine, his 128-ball century was his third consecutive in 50-over cricket, coming from Zimbabwe Select’s preparatory series against Pakistan Shaheens last month.

It was Williams’ sixth international century in 50-over cricket and Ervine’s fourth as they comfortably helped Zimbabwe chase down Nepal’s 291 runs target.

After winning the toss and electing to field first, Zimbabwe restricted Nepal to 290/8 in 50 overs before going on to easily chase down the score, finishing on 291/2 in 44,1 overs to open their tournament on a high note.

It was however, not a good outing for Zimbabwe in the middle of the park in the match’s first innings as Nepal looked threatening with the bat in the early stages of the game. Dropping catches and also conceding runs through misfields, the Chevrons broke Nepal’s opening partnership with 171 runs on the board.

Wellington Masakadza got the breakthrough for the Chevrons bowling out Kushal Bhurtel on 99 runs from 95 deliveries with 31,5 overs played. Masakadza also went on to claim the wicket of another dangerman, Aasif Sheikh who fell for 66 runs off 100 balls.

Masakadza finished with those two scalps in his 10 over spell and gave away 42 runs.
The pick of the Zimbabwean bowlers was left arm seamer Richard Ngarava who finished with impressive figures of 4/43 in nine overs.

Tendai Chatara and Blessing Muzarabani took one wicket each, conceding 59 and 48 runs respectively in seven and 10 overs.

There was no other half century from Nepal with the third highest scorer being Kushal Malla with 41 runs from 42 deliveries while captain, Rohit Paudel made 31 runs after facing 29 balls.

In their chase, there was a good opening stand between Ervine and debutant Joylord Gumbie. The openers put up a 45-run partnership for the first wicket before Gumbie fell for 25 runs from 29 balls.

After the wicket of Gumbie, Ervine was joined by Wessly Madhevere who was caught on 32 runs from 38 balls while attempting to play a short ball, leaving the team on 127-2 in 23,2 overs.

Ervine and Williams went on to see the team through with their unbeaten 164 runs partnership.
Ervine, who was named Player of the Match finished with 121 runs while Williams made 102 runs to help Zimbabwe comfortably collect maximum points.

Sompal Kami and Gulsan Jha were the only wicket takers from Nepal, bowling 5,3 and eight overs respectively for 30 and 56 runs.

On a day where the streaks were made, one was broken as Nepalese star, Sandeep Lamichhane finished wicketless for the first time in 33 innings, which was the longest wicket-taking streak in the format.

Next up for the Chevrons is a clash against Netherlands tomorrow at Harare Sports Club. On the other side of the capital at Takashinga Cricket Club, the West Indies proved stronger than the United States of America (USA) with a 39 runs win.

Windies, batting first were bowled out for 297 runs in 49,3 overs after four half centuries from Johnson Charles, Shai Hope, Roston Chase and Jason Holder. Charles top scored with 66 runs from 80 balls while Holder fell for 56 runs from 40 deliveries. Chase and the skipper, Hope made 55 and 54 runs respectively to help guide the Caribbean side to a defendable total.

Saurabh Netravalkar, Kyle Phillip and Steven Taylor took three wickets apiece for USA while Nosthush Kenjige took the other wicket that fell.

Defending their score of 297, Windies managed to restrict USA to 258/7 in 50 overs to open their account on a high note as well. Gajanand Singh’s 101 runs not out was not enough to help USA cross the finish line.

Kyle Mayers and Alazrri Joseph took two wickets each for West Indies while Holder and Chase took one apiece.

USA will play their second match of the group today against Nepal at Takashinga Cricket Club. — @brandon_malvin