West Indies win by five wickets to clinch spot in Coca-Cola Cup final
John Ward - 1 July 2001
Zimbabwe entered 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.
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.
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.
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.
Unfortunately, Zimbabwe's performance in the field was patchy. 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 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. Gayle eventually fell for 76, skying a catch to midwicket
off Flower, but at 137 for two West Indies were more than halfway
there.
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.
© CricInfo
Teams
|
West Indies,
Zimbabwe.
|
Players/Umpires
|
Dion Ebrahim,
Cameron Cuffy,
Corey Collymore,
Chris Gayle,
Wavell Hinds,
Alistair Campbell,
Grant Flower,
Craig Wishart,
Mervyn Dillon,
Guy Whittall,
Heath Streak,
Brian Murphy,
Shiv Chanderpaul,
Carl Hooper,
Ridley Jacobs.
|
Tours
|
West Indies in Zimbabwe
|
Tournaments
|
Coca-Cola Cup (Zimbabwe) |
Scorecard
|
5th Match: West Indies v Zimbabwe, 1 Jul 2001 |
Grounds
|
Queens Sports Club, Bulawayo
|