Zimbabwe entered their final match in the first round of the Coca-Cola Cupknowing they had to beat West Indies handsomely, and then have India beat WestIndies in Wednesday's match, to reach the final. But, in a fluctuating matchwhere they almost overcame the severe disadvantage of losing the toss, they wentdown by five wickets in the final over yesterday.
It was another clear winter morning in Bulawayo as Zimbabwe lost the tossonce again and were put in to bat. They did have some much-needed good news asHeath Streak was fit to play again.
Zimbabwe again lost a quick wicket as Dion Ebrahim (1) fished outside the offstump to Cameron Cuffy, again bowling superbly, and was caught at the wicket.Stuart Carlisle announced his arrival at the crease with a sweetly timed four tosquare leg but was then caught at slip by Chris Gayle off Corey Collymorewithout addition. At 9 for two, Zimbabwe once again had their backs to the walland the suitability of winter cricket in Zimbabwe was being called intoquestion. On the evidence so far, the pitches tend to be too sluggish and givean inordinate advantage to the side bowling first, more through unexpected swingin the cold morning air, perhaps moistened by dew, that later disappeared.
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Alistair Campbell (17) looked good for a while, but then Cuffy struck again,having him caught at second slip, Gayle again. Craig Wishart, so oftenunderestimated and neglected by the selectors, stood in the breach, batting withfine discrimination and the occasional powerful drive or pull.
Wishart went to his fifty off 67 balls with a drive to the cover boundaryand, with Cuffy having bowled out his ten overs for 30 runs and two wickets. andthe conditions yielding no further help to the bowling side, the West Indianattack suddenly began to look quite innocuous. Flower ran to his fifty with areverse sweep to the boundary, and the pair added 126 before Wishart (71)uppercut Dillon to be caught at third man. Zimbabwe were 153 for four.
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Guy Whittall came in and played his usual improvised strokes, the pairlofting the ball skillfully into the gaps and running like hares between thewickets. Whittall offered a couple of difficult chances that went down, whileFlower played some superb shots, including two sixes into the crowd, but wascaught on the long-on boundary off Dillon for 94, scored off 107 balls.
Zimbabwe finished with 255 for five (Whittall 39*, Andy Blignaut 12*), aremarkable recovery after such a dismal start. Their middle order had given thema good chance of victory after all; now it was up to their bowlers to completethe job, and by a good margin.
Unfortunately, Zimbabwe's performance in the field was patchy. Streak erredin direction and there were some minor but unnecessary lapses in the field. Toadd to their problems, they were playing only five front-line bowlers, includingGrant Flower, and lost Brian Murphy early on when he injured himself in thefield. Alistair Campbell's occasional off-spin was soon required. Against this,Daren Ganga and especially Gayle played a sensible game of accumulation,developing into aggressive strokeplay with the Zimbabweans powerless to put abrake on them.
Gayle's fifty came up off 61 balls, but soon afterwards he lost Ganga (34),sent back and coming off second-best to fine fielding by Blignaut. Gayleeventually fell for 76, skying a catch to midwicket off Flower, but at 137 fortwo West Indies were more than halfway there.
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Wavell Hinds and Shivnarine Chanderpaul shared a solid partnership, but WestIndies were imperceptibly falling behind the required scoring rate; about eightan over were now needed. Chanderpaul (24) suffered an unlucky dismissal when heswept at Campbell and lost his grip on his bat, which hurtled straight into hisstumps, giving a hit-wicket dismissal.
Carl Hooper immediately came close to running himself out in his eagerness toget off the mark, and the batsmen reached the boundary at times, but Hinds fellfor 54, slashing at Streak and edging to the keeper. West Indies were now underpressure as Hooper and Ridley Jacobs gradually improved the situation againstsome superb fielding until 19 were needed off the final three overs.
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At this point Streak made an unexpected but inspired bowling change, bringingback Flower who struck immediately, as Hooper (24) holed out at long-off. But itwas not quite enough and, in a frenetic final over bowled by Streak, West Indiesscraped home with one ball to spare, Jacobs hitting the winning boundary tofinish with 20.
