World Cup 2015 Express: Zimbabwe struggle but manage to beat UAE

“Jab bahut maar padtha hai, ya bahut bhoori taraf sey haar rahe ho, tab 30 overs mey hi dard lagta hai, is umar mey!” (When I get hit around a lot, or our team is losing badly, you feel tired in 30 overs itself at this age). The semi-professional captain of UAE Mohammad Tauqir, 43 years, had talked about the effect of his age on the eve of the game. On Thursday, he wouldn’t have felt any pain. He saw it as an “opportunity lost”

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UAE had indeed pushed Zimbabwe pretty close. So close that Zimbabwe’s match-winner Sean Williams was breathing hard when he found his team at 167 for 5 in the 33rd over, chasing 286. He tried not to show it, he said, but one could sense it. “I just tried to breathe and relax.”

Luckily, he had learnt a lesson from South Africa where he came in a vital juncture in the chase but let the situation get better of him. “I felt flustered when I came in (that game). I learnt my lesson: Come in, hit straight and build an innings.”

Just over 2000 people had turned up at Saxton Oval and there wasn’t much of a “buzz” obviously but UAE’s fight would have gladdened the hearts of those who bothered to turn up. The pitch at Nelson has a bit of movement in the morning and flattens out as the sun bakes it. Even in the game that Ireland won against West Indies, it had followed a similar pattern. UAE lost the toss and had to bat first. The Zimbabwe new-ball bowlers got the ball to zip around a touch – Tendai Chatara, who almost clips his left arm to his hip just before release, got bounce from short of length and got it to straighten, and Tinashe Panyangara was a touch fuller and had the ball to shape away.

Old shakes off cold

UAE were forced to start cautiously before Khurram Khan got them moving along with a responsible 45 before he fell, cutting the ball to backward point. That failure to convert the starts seemed to be the pattern of the innings but Shaiman Anwar wristed his way to 63 and the lower-order of Amjad Javed and Mohammad Naveed got stuck in to Chatara and Panyangara in some style to extend the score to 285.

Khurram would be a bit gutted after getting out at 45. He is the rare player in the camp who viewed himself as a serious, professional, cricketer for some years now. All the players have jobs, and have to sacrifice a lot to practice and play this game. Khurram too of course but deep inside, he saw himself as a cricketer.

Closing the gap 

On the eve of the game, at the team hotel, he had spoken about how desperate he is to score a hundred or two in this tournament and help the team do something special.

In the chase, the pressure got finally to UAE. It was almost a run-a-ball situation for the last 120 runs or so. One of the teams had to buckle down first and for a short while, it seemed it would be Zimbabwe which would go down but Williams added 83 with Craig Ervine before seeing through the end in the company of Chigumbura.

Sean Williams talked about the improvement in the quality of the cricket of the associates. “The gap has closed in a very, very long way. Anyone, any cricket team on that day if they get all three departments right they’ll take the top team right to the end.”

So, Nelson has provided relief-tinged joy for Zimbabwe and regret-tinged joy for UAE.

Zim aim to tame WI next

Nelson: Zimbabwe captain Elton Chigumbura targeted victory over the slumping West Indies today after a four-wicket triumph against the United Arab Emirates breathed new life into their World Cup campaign.

After losing their opener to South Africa, Zimbabwe allowed the UAE to carve out the Middle East nation’s highest one-day international score of 285 before claiming victory with 12 balls to spare at Nelson’s Saxton Oval.

“We need to take this momentum into the game against the West Indies,” said Chigumbura, whose side face the men from the Caribbean in Canberra on Monday. “Hopefully we can polish up our fielding and have a good game in all departments.”

Chigumbura also praised the depth of his batting line-up, which saw Sean Williams making an undefeated 76 batting at five and Craig Ervine, at seven, hitting 42 at almost a run-a-ball.

“I thought the guys played well with the bat. The good thing about our team is we have eight batters so there was no pressure,” the skipper said. “Getting over the line was the most important thing to do and we did it.”

UAE captain Mohammad Tauqir admitted that despite his side making a ODI best total on their return to the World Cup after an absence of almost two decades, they didn’t have quite enough runs on the board.

“We played some good cricket but we were expecting a different result. In the previous game on this wicket we saw that 300 was not enough (when WI lost to Ireland),” said the 43-year-old. “We know our limitations and we scored 285. But they batted well, struck up some good partnerships and won.” (AFP)