Windies Edge Past Zimbabwe in a Thriller!

So we continue to witness thrilling games at the 2019 ICC World Cup qualifiers. After topping both their respective groups in the group stage, Zimbabwe and West Indies were to take on each other today in a Super Sixes match. The Windies won 4 out of 4 in the round robin stage but lost a Super Sixes game to Afghanistan, which made this a very vital clash for them.

For Zimbabwe, it’s been great going so far as they hadn’t lost a single game in the qualifiers as yet, which meant they were high up on confidence. Zimbabwe won the toss and elected to bat first, and as usual, they lost a few early on and had to rebuild for most of the innings. They were reduced to 79/3 and weren’t scoring at a good rate either.

In stepped former captain and wicket keeper Brendan Taylor, who played one of the best innings I have seen him play in his career so far. He walked in and started playing some clean, magnificent strokes and even though a couple of wickets fell at the other end, he ensured the scoring rate was still brisk.

Taylor brought up his 10th ODI century and ended at 138(124), as he attempted to go for back-to-back sixes. However, this knock and useful contributions from Sean Williams and Sikandar Raza made sure Zimbabwe scored 289 in their 50 overs. They believed their score was good enough to defend.

Clearly, the Windies batsmen had other ideas as they went after the bowling and kept wickets intact, going into the final 10 overs. 64 from Evin Lewis, 76 from Shai Hope and 86 from Marlon Samuels made it look like West Indies were cruising to victory, until they lost 4 wickets between the 44th and 46th overs of their innings and gave Zimbabwe a chance to sneak back into the game.

This tournament has witnessed some cliffhangers and this one proved to be no different. With 4 wickets in hand, the Windies needed 11 to win in 12 balls and the crowd was really getting behind Zimbabwe. It was interesting that they gave the ball to Sean Williams for the 19th over.

Giving the ball to Williams at that stage was never a good idea, and the game was won by Windies with an over to spare. With this, they keep their hopes alive of going to England for the 2019 ICC World Cup. Zimbabwe still sit pretty at the top of the table! If you liked this, read more content here:

Cheers!