Zimbabwe in a `Raising Hope` Loss

By Perkins-Tino Bare

Zimbabwe showed great courage in their opening World Cup encounter in Hamilton at Seddon Park as they went down rather harshly to their neighbours and bitter rivals in one of the biggest rivals in World Cricket by a mere 62 runs in a voraciously contested match which forced the Proteas to turn to their middle order batsmen for runs escaping with death rather pistoriously.

In what was a tightly contested match and the skipper Elton Chigumbura selected to field and with the short boundaries, we were already expecting big scores in the match. In what was already dubbed the Battle of Africa, South Africa sent in Hashim Amla and Quinton De Cock to start up their quite long batting line-up. De Cock was to depart in the third over after he was caught off by Craig Ervine from a Chatara ball for a meager 11 runs which was to become the order of the day for the top order batsmen for South Africa. With the Proteas at 10/1 Faf Du Plessis walked to the crease and just as it seemed they had something going on Amla was stumped by Tinashe Panyagara departing for 11 from 26 balls. In came the villain of them all, the highest ranked ODI batsman AB De Villiers as South Africa were at 21/2 but it seemed the top-order batsmen had been meditating on the C word as he also became a victim of Craig Ervine`s catch off the bowling of young Tafadzwa Kamungozi sending the highly rated back to the dressing room for 25 from 36 balls after his compatriot François Du Plessis had been caught by Brendan Taylor off the bowling of Elton Chigumbura going back to the dressing room for a mere 24 from 32 balls with a four and a six to console him. This then sent the fearsome big four to watch the game from the dressing room and just cheer. It had been 10 years since South Africa had lost four wickets for less than 100 runs against Zimbabwe on as they were reeling at 83/4 after 20.2 overs.

After such a humbling start, South Africa had their hopes on the duo of Jean Paul Duminy and David Millers who had the game on their shoulders for failure to stop the wicket-fall was going to see the Proteas in big trouble. The two not only saved the Proteas on the day but went on to set up the world record for the highest 5^th wicket partnership stand of 256 as a Zimbabwean side that had started off firing all cylinders soon ran out of firearm. DA Miller, who later became the man of the match had 138 from 82 balls at a strike rate of 150 with 7 fours and 9 sixes whilst his comrade JP Duminy had 115 from 100 balls with 9 fours and 3 sixes as the Proteas fought their way back into the match hard to set up a target of 339/4 in their allotted 50 overs.

Zimbabwe went in to bat hoping to finish off what had started off as an unlikely win for the. Chevrons. Chamu Chibhabha walked to the crease with Sikander Raza who has been struggling for form lately as he has a total of 13 runs from his last two innings. Sikander Raza departed for 7 as he fell to the bowling of Vernon Philander.

In came in Hamilton Masakadza the most feared batsmen among the Chevron contingent hoping to carry on with their stubborn fight back as they looked to down their neighbours. Hamilton Masakadza partnered well with Chamu Chibhabha as he went into the innings in need of needs 39 runs to become the 5th player to score 4,000 ODI runs it was to be a special innings for the big man. Masakadza established a decent partnership with Chamu Chibhabha as they went on to set their partnership of 105 runs as Chamu Chibhabha departed for 64 from 82 balls with 10 fours to speak of from a Imran Tahir strike.  Brendan Taylor walked to the crease to partner Hamilton Masakadza who went on to become the third best overall batsman on the day with 80 runs from 74 balls with 8 fours and two sixes at a strike rate of 108.10 garnering most of his runs from the leg side which he greatly exploited. After Masakadza`s departure Zimbabwe was on 191/3 and was well on course to chase down that 339 target. Taylor then fell 10 runs shy of a half century as he fell at 40 runs with 4 fours and a six. With the Chevrons at 214/4 they looked well on course to the 340 target as the big four had done their part but the difference in quality was to show as the middle order batsmen and the tail enders all had a combined total of 66 with only o talk of that of the skipper and Craig Ervine which had 18 runs and that of Solomon Mire and Tendai Chatara which had 27 runs as the Chevrons struggled on to a decent score of 277 eventually losing the match by 62 runs.

The Chevrons however were great on the day as they fought hard till the very end showing the great determination in the camp which they have been boasting of. Despite the loss the match turned out to be a `moral victory for the boys who managed to bring back a huge contingent of prodigal fans who all believed they could do the job on the day. The match sees the boys going into the next match more confident as in this one they lacked the killer instinct to finish off the Proteas when they were at their mercy. The middle order batsmen particularly Sean Williams a Solomon Mire also failed to turn up for the team. The bowling saw our two main bowlers on the day Tinashe Panyangara and Tendai Chatara with economy rates of over 7 runs each in their 10 overs each, with a wicket apiece. Tafadzwaa Kamungozi was the pick of the bowlers for the Chevrons as he conceded just 34 runs from 8 overs with a wicket to boast of.

Elton Chigumbura lamented the 30 run over which saw the Proteas escaping with murder Pistoriously and the coach Dav Whatmore praised a great showing by his guys as he tweeted `Overall effort was good, to play South Africa first up is tough! I am proud of the fight shown by the boys. This is the minimum standard now! ` Next up for the Chevrons is the United Arab Emirates at the Saxton Oval in nelson on the 19 February.

For More Sports Updates: perkinstinobare.blogspot.com