Zimbabwe Cricket on its way up.
By Aaron Mutara for Shout-Africa – Well its seems finally that Zimbabwe cricket after years of struggling to sort out there board room issues have finally come up with a winning formula. The micro max series has shown that the young players have matured with time and are becoming a force to reckon with.
Two convincing wins against India, the first being in Bulawayo chasing the second highest ODI total 285. Zimbabwe managed to get it with ease with Brendan Taylor leading the front with an impressive 81 winning by 6wickets. The second game the boys lacked in concentration and scored a poultry score of 119 all out against Sri Lanka who easily reached the target with the loss of 1 wicket.
In there 3rd game Zimbabwe fielded first and restricted India to 197 all out with a good performance by the five ballers used that day. The batsmen came into bat with Taylor scoring 74 runs winning him his second man of the match award of the series with great support from Hamilton Masakadza who has been in good form scoring 66.they had matched to win the match before 40 overs and gaining the bonus point securing themselves a place in the final.
India’s loss to Sri Lanka meant the tie played yesterday between Sri Lanka was jus a dead rubbers since both teams had secured there place in the final. Zimbabwe however won the toss and elected to field once again putting up a sterling performance reducing Sri Lanka to 236 all out in 47.5. Sri Lanka looked posed to set a big target at one stage there where at 122-0,but the Zimbabwe ballers bowled well to reduce there score. Zimbabwe started their innings slowly losing Masakadza for just 3 runs before Chibhabha and Taylor steadied the ship. Chibhabha scored an impressive 58 before being trapped by Dilshan lbw. Taylor and Taibu then carried the team to victory with Taylor getting his third ODI hundred and matching his previous best of 119.Taibu played a great role just rotating the strike with a quick fire 42.
So this sets a great platform for the final on Wednesday, since most of the rested players will be back and Sri Lank will seem to want to redeem lost pride. During the series the side that has batted second has been winning and Zimbabwe was hoping to win the toss since there seem to be good at chasing the target rather than setting. Well done to Allan Butcher and his lads it seems the transformation has begun for Zimbabwe cricket.
