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Zim Fight Hard but Fall to England

Thu, 13/09/2007 - 03:04 — admin

Not to be for Zimbabwe, although for a good three-quarters for the game they fought hard and were in with a shout - unfortunately, a mid-order batting collapse sealed their fate and left the tail-end to bat out the overs and make up the best possible run-rate.

Two things that really sunk Zimbabwe's efforts: Kevin Pietersen's rapid-fire 79 from 37 balls, which neatly overturned the early advantage Zimbabwe had gained when Chigumura removed Maddy and Wright on consecutive balls; and Zimbabwe's collapse from 74/0 to 89/5, which undid the stellar start that Vusi Sibanda and Brendan Taylor had given the side - until Sibanda's dismissal in the 9th over, Zimbabwe were ahead in the match, but with the middle order refusing to fire in this match, the openers' good work came to naught. Hamilton Masakadza and Prosper Utseya at least put up some fight at the bottom of the innings, limiting the damage to Zim's net run rate as best they could - and depending on Friday's result, that could be significant.

If England beat Australia tomorrow, Zimbabwe are through to the 2nd group stage. If Australia win, positions will be decided on net run rate. Zim’s isn’t great, so if Australia win, it needs to be by a large margin. Our boys have done what they can and, if spirit was a qualifying criteria, they’d be through in first place - sadly, it isn’t, so it’s a waiting game now.

What can't be said, though, is that Zimbabwe were the whipping boys of the competition - against all expectations, they've stood up and made themselves known by beating the world's best side and by giving England cause for worry. If they do come home after this group stage, it will be with heads held high.

Full scorecard below the cut.
England 188/9 (20 overs; Pietersen 79, Chigumbura 4/31), Zimbabwe 138/7 (20 overs; Taylor 47, Mascarenhas 3/18). England win by 50 runs, currently lead Group B.

England innings
DL Maddy	c Matsikenyeri b Chigumbura	14
MJ Prior	c Chibhabha b Mupariwa	        20
LJ Wright	c Taylor b Chigumbura	        0
KP Pietersen	c Masakadza b Utseya	        79
PD Collingwood	run out (Sibanda/Taylor)	37
A Flintoff	b Chibhabha	                13
OA Shah	        c Chibhabha b Chigumbura	11
AD Mascarenhas	c Masakadza b Chigumbura	0
CP Schofield	not out	                        9
SCJ Broad	run out (Mupariwa/Brent)	1
JM Anderson	not out	                        0
    Extras	(lb 1, w 3)	                4
    Total	(9 wickets; 20 overs; 73 mins)	188

Fall of wickets: 1-20 (Maddy, 2.3 ov), 2-20 (Wright, 2.4 ov), 
3-51 (Prior, 5.3 ov), 4-151 (Pietersen, 14.3 ov), 
5-154 (Collingwood, 15.1 ov), 6-172 (Flintoff, 17.6 ov), 
7-178 (Shah, 18.2 ov), 8-178 (Mascarenhas, 18.3 ov), 
9-186 (Broad, 19.4 ov)

Bowling	        O	M	R	W	Econ	
E Chigumbura	4	0	31	4	7.75	(1w)
GB Brent	3	0	34	0	11.33	
T Mupariwa	2	0	22	1	11.00	
P Utseya	4	0	27	1	6.75	
T Taibu	        2	0	20	0	10.00	
KM Dabengwa	2	0	29	0	14.50	(1w)
CJ Chibhabha	3	0	24	1	8.00	(1w)

								
Zimbabwe innings (target: 189 runs from 20 overs)
V Sibanda	c Maddy b Mascarenhas	        29
BRM Taylor	b Mascarenhas	                47
T Taibu	        b Mascarenhas	                2
CJ Chibhabha	c & b Schofield	                5
S Matsikenyeri	c Flintoff b Schofield	        2
E Chigumbura	c Wright b Collingwood	        8
H Masakadza	c Wright b Broad	        27
P Utseya	not out	                        13
KM Dabengwa	not out	                        0
    Extras	(lb 4, w 1)	                5
    Total	(7 wickets; 20 overs; 76 mins)	138

Did not bat: GB Brent, T Mupariwa 

Fall of wickets: 1-74 (Sibanda, 8.4 ov), 2-81 (Taibu, 10.2 ov), 
3-84 (Taylor, 12.1 ov), 4-87 (Matsikenyeri, 13.2 ov), 
5-89 (Chibhabha, 13.4 ov), 6-104 (Chigumbura, 15.4 ov), 
7-137 (Masakadza, 19.4 ov)

Bowling	        O	M	R	W	Econ	
SCJ Broad	4	0	29	1	7.25	
JM Anderson	3	0	31	0	10.33	
A Flintoff	3	0	18	0	6.00	
AD Mascarenhas	4	0	18	3	4.50	
CP Schofield	4	0	15	2	3.75	
PD Collingwood	2	0	23	1	11.50	(1w)

Comments

Thu, 13/09/2007 - 23:23 — Sam (not verified)

Zim lost to England because their bats are of the worst quality! They could not go for the sixes because they would fall short and get caught, and they had to really blaze it even get a four.

If their were any true supporters out there they would donate money to the team in order to buy new bats or start a website so people could donate, they would be national hero's and probably make it on to the news.
You would have to give them the bats in person, not cash, because government officials would seize it.

If you got the bats to them asap (preferably before their next20/20 then we could Zim take us ALL the way!

GO ZIM!

Thu, 13/09/2007 - 23:41 — maehara (not verified)

You were watching the TV commentary, I take it? There was a remark at some point during Zim's innings (can't remember who made it) that the thunk you heard when a Zimbabwean slogged a ball just didn't sound as solid as when an English player was doing it, and that bat quality was probably what caused the difference. When I was playing in Zim, we had good Gray Nicolls kit, but I'm guessing that's hard to come by these days...

That said, Zim are also short on truly hard-hitters - Elton Chigumbura can do some good slogging when he's on form, but apart from him the batsmen aren't really strong enough to truly go wild. Not much they can do about that, sadly.

Fri, 14/09/2007 - 21:53 — brmtaylor.com admin (not verified)

"If their were any true supporters out there they would donate money to the team in order to buy new bats or start a website so people could donate, they would be national hero’s and probably make it on to the news."

This isn't some poor club team we are talking about. Zimbabwe Cricket made a killing on the World Cup, it's been reported in some places that they made up to US$11,000,000. They don't need our charity, if a player wanted a new bat, they would get it courtesy of ZC.

If you want to donate money to a cricket board, donate it to Uganda or another team which does not have the luxury of ICC funding and sponsorship deals like Zimbabwe does.

Zimbabwe were absolutely fantastic against Australia, the team was at their very best. Even though Australia were below their best, it is still a game they should have won, but the pressure Zimbabwe applied, largely thanks to Brendan Taylor's allround genius, obviously rattled the Aussies.

It's a shame that Zimbabwe didn't progress, but this is a turning point for the team. It's been quite some time since Zimbabwe has beaten a top team... as Taylor said "it's great to beat some quality opposition". Just as Bangladesh become a genuine ODI threat in the past year or two... I think Zimbabwe is getting to that stage as well.

Sat, 15/09/2007 - 09:40 — maehara (not verified)

This isn’t some poor club team we are talking about. Zimbabwe Cricket made a killing on the World Cup, it’s been reported in some places that they made up to US$11,000,000.

It's also fairly well reported that a lot of ZC's money doesn't appear to make it much further than ZC, as the long string of stories of unpaid players of the past few years will testify. But that's an old story that I'm not going to rehash, and as I mentioned I think Zim's more lacking a certain type of batsman than they are kit. Andy Blignaut, Piet Rinke or Greg Strydom have the firepower for Twenty20 when they're on form, but for a variety of reasons none of them are in the picture at the moment.

It’s a shame that Zimbabwe didn’t progress, but this is a turning point for the team.

I really hope you're right - there's a lot to be said for the momentum that goes along with winning, and beating Australia should give some of that to the team. But I had hoped that the last-ball win against Bangladesh that Taylor secured, and the series win that went along with it, would have given them the same boost - and we've had some truly atrocious performances since then. Maybe the series against South Africa marked the real turning point, and maybe Robin Brown's approach in charge will provide more motivation for the guys than Curran did, but until we play another series against a top-flight side, we won't really know. Only time will tell.

Sat, 15/09/2007 - 11:22 — Sam (not verified)

"Zimbabwe Cricket made a killing on the World Cup, it’s been reported in some places that they made up to US$11,000,000."

With the coming up elections you can bet that very little of that money is going to get to the team!

"I think Zim’s more lacking a certain type of batsman than they are kit"

One of the players was using a bat i had never even heard of "Impala", It looked bad and sounded even worst! I know they aren't any real power hitters in the team, but did you see how hard they were blazing that ball near the end of the England game? Only a poor bat could have prevented some of those balls going to Mars!
With a good bat my 5 ft 6 mother hit a six! The bats make a BIG difference!