By KEVIN MAPASURE IN BULAWAYO THE Zimbabwe national cricket team hit a new low after losing to visiting Namibia at Queens Sports Club.
The home side was bundled out for 95 runs in 19.1 overs, chasing a winning target of 128, which is their third lowest T-20 score to lose by 32 runs in the fifth and final T-20 international. The win gave Namibia the series at 3-2.
Yesterday’s performance and the series result in particular should lead to alarm bells as Zimbabwe is preparing for the T-20 World Cup qualifiers.
This has been a sobering series for Zimbabwe who have seen associate sides making ground on them.
Zimbabwe produced one of their worst batting displays in this format, with Tony Munyonga top-scoring with 28 runs while Innocent Kaia (12), Wessley Madhevere (10), Sikandar Raza (12) and Donald Tiripano (11) were the only other batsmen to reach double figures.
The Regis Chakabva-captained side got off to a bad start in their run chase and never recovered after they found themselves three wickets down with just 27 runs on the board after 4.1 overs.
Namibia kept the stranglehold on, and never allowed Zimbabwe to get a sniff with wickets getting distributed among Ruben Trumpelmann (1 for 15), Bernard Scholtz (1 for 18), Jan Frylinck (2 for 25), David Wiese (1 for 17), Ben Shikongo (1 for 9) and Gerhard Erasmus (2 for 9).
Namibia lost the toss and was sent in to bat by Chakabva. They struggled to get going, with Craig Williams top-scoring with 48 from 39 balls before he was run out.
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Trumpelmann had the second-best score 19 with Luke Jongwe, Sikandar Raza and Madhevere equally sharing six wickets.
Brad Evans finally celebrated a wicket having made his debut two matches prior while Tendai Chatara, who had been Zimbabwe’s main wicket taker going into this match toiled for naught.
Zimbabwe next focus on another home tour against Afghanistan who will pose stiffer challenge as they continue to build towards the T-20 World Cup qualifiers that will be staged in Zimbabwe in July.
- Follow Kevin on Twitter @kevinmapasure
