News / National
Warning shots fired
14 Jun 2023 at 01:31hrs | Views
ALL-ROUNDER Sikandar Raza smashed a brilliant century before excelling with the ball as Zimbabwe warmed up for the upcoming ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier with a victory over minnows Oman in a high-scoring match at Takashinga Sports Club yesterday.
The Chevrons posted 367/6 in their allotted overs but could not entirely stamp authority in the match after allowing the Middle East side to rally back to 339 all out in 49.4 overs.
The home team won the match by 28 runs.
Zimbabwe coach Dave Houghton though should have been thrilled by the senior players standing up and leading the way.
Raza's innings was the highlight for Zimbabwe after the all-rounder plundered 109 runs from 66 balls before retiring out to give the other batsmen a chance.
The 37-year-old, who is again expected to be one of the key players for the hosts, struck seven fours and as many sixes yesterday.
There were also half-centuries for Sean Williams (64) and Ryan Burl (65), as Zimbabwe's batters got some useful time out in the middle.
Oman gave it a good crack in reply, with Aqib Ilyas scoring a classy 113 and Ayaan Khan going close to a third ton in the match with his 92.
But Raza shone with the ball, taking 3/42 as Oman fell just short. Brad Evans was a bit expensive with his 3-47 in his 5.4 overs while Blessing Muzarabani contributed 2-44 in 10 overs.
Prior to this game, Houghton had stressed the importance of all-round team performances in preparation for the 10-team World Cup qualifying tournament that gets underway this Sunday in Harare and Bulawayo.
Houghton is confident his side will go all the way to the final and snatch one of the two tickets available for the ICC World Cup finals set for India between October and November this year.
"Every department, the top order batters get some runs, we field well and our bowlers bowl nicely. I have got to be careful as well because, obviously we want to go as deep as we can in this tournament, so I won't be able to put the same XI out twice in a row because, if we go all the way, we are going to end up playing 10 games in 22 days, which is just too much," said Houghton.
The Chevrons have another practice game against Scotland at Old Hararians tomorrow and the tournament will officially be launched on Friday. Zimbabwe are in Group A along with the West Indies, the Netherlands, Nepal and the United States while Sri Lanka, Ireland, Scotland, Oman and the United Arab Emirates form Group B.
The top three from each group will progress to the Super Six stage where they will play the sides they did not meet in the group stage.
All points won in the group stage will be carried over to the Super Six stage apart from those gained against the teams that fail to make it to the Super Six stage. The finalists will both progress to the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023.
Zimbabwe missed the 2019 World Cup after a frustrating finish to the Qualifying tournament they hosted in 2018.
Both Houghton and the Chevrons players would not want a repeat of such frustrations. They have been working hard in the last few months and recently hosted Pakistan A in a six-match one-day series which offered many players game opportunities.
"A number of people say to me our batting has probably been as good as it has been for ages. Certainly if you just take the last six games against Pakistan A, five of the six matches we got in excess of 300, top order batters got hundreds.
" . . . we bat deep and we have got a very good fielding side and a decent attack," said Houghton.
"We are not going to change the way we play cricket. The positive brand of cricket we played was not just for one tournament, it's for the continuation of our tournaments.
For too long, Zimbabwe played a sort of "if we are going to lose let's have faith and just go through the overs'. I don't want us to play that way at all.
"There will be times that we will be bowled out cheaply, that may happen, but we gonna give ourselves a chance to win by playing positively throughout," said Houghton.
All the participating teams were involved in the warm-up games yesterday as Sri Lanka beat Netherlands by three wickets in Bulawayo.
Some friendly bowling conditions early on saw the Dutch side slip to 28/4, but a middle-order revival helped them to a total of 214 all out in 45.3 overs, with Teja Nidamanuru (41 from 62), Scott Edwards (35 from 48) and Saqib Zulfiqar (56 from 64) the main contributors.
Kasun Rajitha was the stand-out performer with the ball, taking 3/19 in seven overs, while Maheesh Theekshana bagged 2/36 from his ten and Dhananjaya de Silva took 2/19 from four. There were also wickets for Lahiru Kumara, Chamika Karunaratne and Matheesha Pathirana.
Dimuth Karunaratne's 55-ball 47 helped set some sort of a platform, and Charith Asalanka's timely resistance from number five (29 from 38) halted the flow of wickets.
But it was the captain Dasun Shanaka who saved Sri Lanka on the day, with his 67* from 52 balls steering Sri Lanka to a winning score of 215/7 with 12.5 overs still remaining but just three wickets in hand.
Ireland beat USA by five wickets in the other practice match at the Bulawayo Athletic Club. Harry Tector, ICC Men's Player of the Month for May, starred as Ireland won in a run-fest.
Set 312 to win, Ireland lost two early wickets to leave them in a spot of trouble. But impressive knocks from Paul Stirling (55 from 53) and Lorcan Tucker (68 from 59) formed part of two crucial stands, both with the imperious Tector, who finished not out on 149 from 123 balls.
One of the tournament favourites West Indies beat Scotland by 91 runs. The West Indies spinners proved too good for Scotland at Harare Sports Club.
Yannic Cariah (4/46) and Roston Chase (3/43) did much of the damage as Scotland slumped from 54/1 to 173 all out in their chase of 264.
Brandon McMullen (38) and Matthew Cross (35) were the only Scottish batters to go past 30.
It had looked far more promising in the early stages of the match when the ball was doing a bit, with West Indies slipping to 45/4 in the 12th over.
But half-centuries for Shai Hope (57) and Romario Shepherd (53) lifted the West Indies to a score that proved out of Scotland's reach.
UAE beat Nepal by three wickets in a nail-biting finish as UAE narrowly beat Nepal at Old Hararians.
The Asian side hit 276 in their first dig, being bowled out off the penultimate ball of the innings.
And UAE reached the target in a final-over thriller, hitting the winning runs with just one ball and three wickets to spare
The Chevrons posted 367/6 in their allotted overs but could not entirely stamp authority in the match after allowing the Middle East side to rally back to 339 all out in 49.4 overs.
The home team won the match by 28 runs.
Zimbabwe coach Dave Houghton though should have been thrilled by the senior players standing up and leading the way.
Raza's innings was the highlight for Zimbabwe after the all-rounder plundered 109 runs from 66 balls before retiring out to give the other batsmen a chance.
The 37-year-old, who is again expected to be one of the key players for the hosts, struck seven fours and as many sixes yesterday.
There were also half-centuries for Sean Williams (64) and Ryan Burl (65), as Zimbabwe's batters got some useful time out in the middle.
Oman gave it a good crack in reply, with Aqib Ilyas scoring a classy 113 and Ayaan Khan going close to a third ton in the match with his 92.
But Raza shone with the ball, taking 3/42 as Oman fell just short. Brad Evans was a bit expensive with his 3-47 in his 5.4 overs while Blessing Muzarabani contributed 2-44 in 10 overs.
Prior to this game, Houghton had stressed the importance of all-round team performances in preparation for the 10-team World Cup qualifying tournament that gets underway this Sunday in Harare and Bulawayo.
Houghton is confident his side will go all the way to the final and snatch one of the two tickets available for the ICC World Cup finals set for India between October and November this year.
"Every department, the top order batters get some runs, we field well and our bowlers bowl nicely. I have got to be careful as well because, obviously we want to go as deep as we can in this tournament, so I won't be able to put the same XI out twice in a row because, if we go all the way, we are going to end up playing 10 games in 22 days, which is just too much," said Houghton.
The Chevrons have another practice game against Scotland at Old Hararians tomorrow and the tournament will officially be launched on Friday. Zimbabwe are in Group A along with the West Indies, the Netherlands, Nepal and the United States while Sri Lanka, Ireland, Scotland, Oman and the United Arab Emirates form Group B.
The top three from each group will progress to the Super Six stage where they will play the sides they did not meet in the group stage.
All points won in the group stage will be carried over to the Super Six stage apart from those gained against the teams that fail to make it to the Super Six stage. The finalists will both progress to the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023.
Zimbabwe missed the 2019 World Cup after a frustrating finish to the Qualifying tournament they hosted in 2018.
Both Houghton and the Chevrons players would not want a repeat of such frustrations. They have been working hard in the last few months and recently hosted Pakistan A in a six-match one-day series which offered many players game opportunities.
"A number of people say to me our batting has probably been as good as it has been for ages. Certainly if you just take the last six games against Pakistan A, five of the six matches we got in excess of 300, top order batters got hundreds.
"We are not going to change the way we play cricket. The positive brand of cricket we played was not just for one tournament, it's for the continuation of our tournaments.
For too long, Zimbabwe played a sort of "if we are going to lose let's have faith and just go through the overs'. I don't want us to play that way at all.
"There will be times that we will be bowled out cheaply, that may happen, but we gonna give ourselves a chance to win by playing positively throughout," said Houghton.
All the participating teams were involved in the warm-up games yesterday as Sri Lanka beat Netherlands by three wickets in Bulawayo.
Some friendly bowling conditions early on saw the Dutch side slip to 28/4, but a middle-order revival helped them to a total of 214 all out in 45.3 overs, with Teja Nidamanuru (41 from 62), Scott Edwards (35 from 48) and Saqib Zulfiqar (56 from 64) the main contributors.
Kasun Rajitha was the stand-out performer with the ball, taking 3/19 in seven overs, while Maheesh Theekshana bagged 2/36 from his ten and Dhananjaya de Silva took 2/19 from four. There were also wickets for Lahiru Kumara, Chamika Karunaratne and Matheesha Pathirana.
Dimuth Karunaratne's 55-ball 47 helped set some sort of a platform, and Charith Asalanka's timely resistance from number five (29 from 38) halted the flow of wickets.
But it was the captain Dasun Shanaka who saved Sri Lanka on the day, with his 67* from 52 balls steering Sri Lanka to a winning score of 215/7 with 12.5 overs still remaining but just three wickets in hand.
Ireland beat USA by five wickets in the other practice match at the Bulawayo Athletic Club. Harry Tector, ICC Men's Player of the Month for May, starred as Ireland won in a run-fest.
Set 312 to win, Ireland lost two early wickets to leave them in a spot of trouble. But impressive knocks from Paul Stirling (55 from 53) and Lorcan Tucker (68 from 59) formed part of two crucial stands, both with the imperious Tector, who finished not out on 149 from 123 balls.
One of the tournament favourites West Indies beat Scotland by 91 runs. The West Indies spinners proved too good for Scotland at Harare Sports Club.
Yannic Cariah (4/46) and Roston Chase (3/43) did much of the damage as Scotland slumped from 54/1 to 173 all out in their chase of 264.
Brandon McMullen (38) and Matthew Cross (35) were the only Scottish batters to go past 30.
It had looked far more promising in the early stages of the match when the ball was doing a bit, with West Indies slipping to 45/4 in the 12th over.
But half-centuries for Shai Hope (57) and Romario Shepherd (53) lifted the West Indies to a score that proved out of Scotland's reach.
UAE beat Nepal by three wickets in a nail-biting finish as UAE narrowly beat Nepal at Old Hararians.
The Asian side hit 276 in their first dig, being bowled out off the penultimate ball of the innings.
And UAE reached the target in a final-over thriller, hitting the winning runs with just one ball and three wickets to spare
Source - The Herald
