BY KEVIN MAPASURE IN BULAWAYO THE fear of failure could have frozen them out, yet the Chevrons, beset by a challenging situation, fought with finesse and fortitude for an emphatic finish in their International Cricket Council T-20 World Cup qualifier B final by beating Netherlands by 37 runs.
The band of Bulawayo fans was at its bouncing and banging best as the team bravely retrieved the match from raging fires to emerge unscathed from this dangerous tournament.
Once Zimbabwe were restricted to just 133 after winning the toss, to some, especially novices and non-believers, the match was done and dusted, a deflating defeat for the home side.
But to trained cricket minds, at the innings break, the match was delicately poised, especially on this deck and they could only bite their lower lips for the run chase.
Sikandar Raza with another razzmatazz moment stole the show with 4 for 8 in four overs that won him the man of the match, player of the tournament and the trophy, but it was Wessley Madhevere’s (2 for 15) tricks early in the Netherlands innings that brought back the belief after the Dutch threatened to be the party poopers.
With Zimbabwe looking to defend their modest 133, the story was simple and straight forward; they needed to be perfect in the field and boy they were, as they fought themselves to a thrilling win.
Madhevere triggered a cacophony after he first tricked Max O’Dowd for 12 runs before he followed up that by trapping Bas de Leede, who had scored a single run.
At that point, 2 for 17 in 2.5 overs, fans were trapped in between investing their emotions into believing that a win could be delivered and just having fun in the sun on a Sunday at a match that was already lost.
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Two for 17 became 3 for 45 in 6.4 overs and the prior to barely believing band of supporters ramped up their decibels as Zimbabwe’s chances suddenly brightly blossomed.
Milton Shumba delivered a brilliant piece of fielding with a direct hit that saw Tom Cooper return to the hut with just nine runs to his name.
Crowd favourite Raza joined the party as he snared Stephan Myburgh (22), the tourists’ top scorer to send the capacity crowd into fantasy land.
Besides that singing and dancing in the stands, what followed were three more wickets for Raza, who bowled out Logan van de Beek (0) and Tim Pringle (4) before he trapped Fred Klaassen for nought as well as a wicket apiece for Sean Williams, Like Jongwe and Richard Ngarava.
When Ngarava took the final wicket the fans were delirious, but they might have had a bit of a disappointment that the day at cricket was finally over.
Before that, Zimbabwe had induced nerves everywhere in the park after they put up their worse batting display at this tournament.
Regis Chakabva, like he has done throughout this tournament where he has always had the starts, but the conversion to half centuries continued to elude him as this time he fell for 27 after facing just 16 balls, hitting two boundaries and as many maximums.
Madhevere didn’t last long for his nine off ten, but Sean Williams went on to score 28 before he was caught by de Leede off the bowling of Shariz Ahmad.
The Zimbabwe batsmen struggled to free their arms, strangled by the precision of Logan van de Beek, who took three wickets, Bas de Leede, who claimed two scalps, Paul van Meekren, Klaassen and Tim Pringle, sharing three wickets.
- Follow Kevin on Twitter @kevinmapasure
