|
Allrounder Elton Chigumbura struck a fiery half-century to help Zimbabwe achieve a five-wicket win over United Arab Emirates in Sylhet yesterday, which briefly kept their hopes of reaching the next round alive. However, the Netherlands stunning win over Ireland dashed Zimbabwe’s chances. |
Chigumbura smashed three sixes and six boundaries in his 21-ball 53 not out to lift Zimbabwe from a struggling 34-4 and surpass a modest 117-run target in 13.4 overs.
The win lifted Zimbabwe’s net run-rate over Ireland, but with Netherlands chasing down a daunting 190-run target in just 13.5 overs against Ireland, the Dutch qualified to Super-10 stage. Hosts Bangladesh had qualified for the Super-10 from Group A on Thursday.
Chigumbura added a match-winning 55 for the sixth wicket with Timycen Maruma who made 22 not out. Before that Zimbabwe were jolted by left-arm paceman Manjula Guruge (2-18) who dismissed Hamilton Masakadza (two) and Sean Williams (nought) in successive overs.
Zimbabwe’s best batsman skipper Brendan Taylor also managed just 15. Taylor praised his team, especially Chigumbura. “It was nice to see the guys coming out and playing with freedom. We were a bit more clinical today, even if we did lose a couple of early wickets but Elton was the guy who did it for us,” he said.
UAE captain Khurram Khan showed disappointment after their third loss of the tournament. “We have to work on our fitness and hopefully next time around we go better than this,” said Khan.
The UAE owed their total to a 58-run third wicket stand between Khan (26) and Swapnil Patil (30) before left-arm spinner Williams took a career best 3-15 in four overs.
The UAE lost their way before a ninth wicket stand of 27 between Shadeep Silva (13 not out) and Kamran Shahzad (21) lifted them to 116-9 in their 20 overs.
Sikander Raza (2-15) and Tendai Chatara (2-21) were also among the wicket takers for Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe, Ireland, Netherlands all won two matches, with the UAE losing all the three.
Brief scores
United Arab Emirate 116 for 9 (Swapnil Patil 30, Khurran Khan 26; S. Williams 3-15) lost to Zimbabwe 118 for 5 in 13.4 overs (E.
Chigumbura 56 not out; M. Guruge 2-18)
by five wickets.
