Zimbabwe stun West Indies

Zimbabwe pulled off a surprise win as they beat West Indies in their T20 encounter at Port of Spain on Sunday.

Zimbabwe started their tour of the West Indies with a 26-run win in the T20 International between the two sides, which will give them a great boost of confidence ahead of the ODIs.

Zimbabwe won the toss and elected to bat first but got off to a disastrous start. The visitors were reduced to 15 for four at the end of the Quick start overs, with Sulieman Benn doing all the damage in a lethal opening spell. Hamilton Masakadza kept the visitors in the game and found good support from Greg Lamb as the duo added 40 runs for the fifth wicket. Masakadza continued to fight a lone battle but lost his wicket at a crucial stage in the Extreme Performance overs. West Indies looked well in control and truly on top at that stage but Elton Chigumbura gave Zimbabwe a late boost, scoring 34 runs off just 19 balls and pushing their score past the 100 run mark, with most of his runs coming in a single Ravi Rampaul over. Sulieman Benn picked up four wickets for just six runs while Darren Sammy finished with a five wicket haul as Zimbabwe were bundled out for 105.

West Indies started cautiously in their run chase as the pitch appeared to have slowed up further. They were 21 for one at the end of the Extreme Performance overs and with a much more experienced middle order, would have felt very confident of their chances. Thing took a turn for the worse as the Windies lost the wickets of Andre Fletcher, Kieron Pollard and Darren Bravo in quick succession. Zimbabwe’s spinners had got them the early wickets and sensed an opportunity to make a comeback. The visitors kept the ball in the right areas, making it difficult for the batsmen to put them away for runs. The frustration resulted in wickets falling at regular intervals. Denesh Ramdin was the only one to get a respectable score next to his name as the remaining batsmen failed to delivery. The hosts were eventually restricted to just 79 for seven at the end of their 20 overs, which was a perfect start for Zimbabwe.

Graeme Cramer was adjudged Man of the Match for his brilliant spell. He finished with three for 11 off his four overs, earning him a Bowling Efficiency of 327.