5th Match: West Indies v Zimbabwe at Bulawayo, 1 Jul 2001 CricInfo Live Report

5th Match: West Indies v Zimbabwe at Bulawayo, 1 Jul 2001
John Ward

West Indies innings: 25 overs, End of match,
Pre-game: Toss and Teams,
Zimbabwe innings: 25 overs, 50 overs,

WEST INDIES WIN BY 5 WICKETS WITH ONE BALL TO SPARE

Zimbabwe entered this, their final match in the first round of their inaugural triangular tournament knowing they had to beat West Indies handsomely, and then have India beat West Indies in Wednesday's match, to reach the final. But, in a fluctuating match where they almost overcame the severe disadvantage of losing the toss, they went down by five wickets in the final over.

Wavell Hinds and Shivnarine Chanderpaul shared a solid partnership, but West Indies were imperceptibly falling behind the required scoring rate; about eight an over were now needed. Chanderpaul (24) suffered an unlucky dismissal when he swept at Campbell and lost his grip on his bat, which hurtled straight into his stumps, giving a hit-wicket dismissal.

Carl Hooper immediately came close to running himself out in his eagerness to get off the mark, and the batsmen reached the boundary at times, but Hinds fell for 54, slashing at Streak and edging to the keeper. West Indies were now under pressure as Hooper and Ridley Jacobs gradually improved the situation against some superb fielding until 19 were needed off the final three overs.

At this point Streak made an unexpected but inspired bowling change, bringing back Flower who struck immediately, as Hooper (24) holed out at long-off. But it was not quite enough and, in a frenetic final over bowled by Streak, West Indies scraped home with one ball to spare, Jacobs hitting the winning boundary to finish with 20.

WEST INDIES MAKE BRIGHT START IN PURSUIT OF 256

Unfortunately, Zimbabwe's performance in the field was patchy. Heath Streak erred in direction and there were some minor but unnecessary lapses in the field. To add to their problems, they were playing only five front-line bowlers, including Grant Flower, and lost Brian Murphy early on when he injured himself in the field.

Alistair Campbell's occasional off-spin was soon required. Against this, Daren Ganga and especially Chris Gayle played a sensible game of accumulation, developing into aggressive strokeplay with the Zimbabweans powerless to put a brake 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. After 25 overs Zimbabwe's hopes were steadily fading, though, as West Indies were 105 for one (Gayle 56*, Hinds 7*).

GRANT FLOWER'S 94 LIFTS ZIMBABWE TO 255/5

Wishart went to his fifty off 67 balls with a drive to the cover boundary and, with Cuffy having bowled out his ten overs for 30 runs and two wickets and the conditions yielding no further help to the bowling side, the West Indian attack suddenly began to look quite innocuous. Flower ran to his fifty with a reverse 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.

Guy Whittall came in and played his usual improvised strokes, the pair lofting the ball skillfully into the gaps and running like hares between the wickets. Whittall offered a couple of difficult chances that went down, while Flower played some superb shots, including two sixes into the crowd, but was caught on the long-on boundary off Dillon for 94, scored off 107 balls.

Zimbabwe finished with 255 for five (Whittall 39*, Andy Blignaut 12*), a remarkable recovery after such a dismal start. Their middle order had given them a good chance of victory after all; now it was up to their bowlers to complete the job, and by a good margin.

WISHART, FLOWER KEEP ZIMBABWE AFLOAT

Zimbabwe again lost a quick wicket as Dion Ebrahim (1) fished outside the off stump 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 to square leg but was then caught at slip by Chris Gayle off Collymore without addition. At 9 for two, Zimbabwe once again had their backs to the wall and the suitability of winter cricket in Zimbabwe was being called into question. On the evidence so far, the pitches tend to be too sluggish and give an inordinate advantage to the side bowling first, more through unexpected swing in the cold morning air, perhaps moistened by dew, that later disappeared.

Alistair Campbell (17) looked good for a while, but then Cuffy struck again, having him caught at second slip, Gayle again. Craig Wishart, so often underestimated and neglected by the selectors, stood in the breach as he had on Wednesday, batting with fine discrimination and the occasional powerful drive or pull. As he settled down he began to find the gaps for ones and twos more readily, and Grant Flower proved an excellent partner. Conditions were now more favourable to the batsmen, but unless somebody could play a genuinely major innings for Zimbabwe, it was probably too late. After 25 overs, Zimbabwe were 95 for four (Wishart 45, Flower 24).

WEST INDIES ELECT TO FIELD FIRST AT BULAWAYO

Zimbabwe entered this their final match in the first round of their inaugural triangular tournament with a slight ray of hope, if no more than that. West Indies’ defeat by India the previous day left them still only two points ahead of Zimbabwe on the table, and if they did manage to beat West Indies the two teams would be level.

But because any ties in the eventual table are resolved by run rate and because Zimbabwe are already well behind West Indies, they will have to win convincingly, and also rely on India beating West Indies on Wednesday, to reach the final. Zimbabwe are rarely at their best under pressure, so today’s match will be a serious test for them.

It was another clear winter’s morning in Bulawayo as Zimbabwe lost the toss once again and were put in to bat. They did have some much-needed good news as Heath Streak was fit to play again, and Brian Murphy also came into the side at the expense of Travis Friend and David Mutendera. West Indies replaced Reon King with Corey Collymore. The teams were:

Zimbabwe: Alistair Campbell, Dion Ebrahim, Stuart Carlisle, Grant Flower, Craig Wishart, Guy Whittall, *Heath Streak, Andy Blignaut, +Tatenda Taibu, Brian Murphy, Bryan Strang.

West Indies: Daren Ganga, Chris Gayle, Wavell Hinds, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, *Carl Hooper, Marlon Samuels, +Ridley Jacobs, Mahendra Nagamootoo, Mervyn Dillon, Cameron Cuffy, Corey Collymore.