This report has been made possible by the Scottish Cricket
Supporters, who gave me a lift to the Harare South Country Club
ground when I was unable to get petrol during the current fuel
crisis
John Ward25-Dec-2009This report has been made possible by the Scottish Cricket
Supporters, who gave me a lift to the Harare South Country Club
ground when I was unable to get petrol during the current fuel
crisis. Thanks very much to them all.It was a most interesting match in which the balance swung
unexpectedly from one side to the other, before Zimbabwe A
finally gained their first victory of the tournament by 8 runs.
Zimbabwe A recovered well after being seriously tied down by
accurate bowling, while Scotland made a gallant challenge for
victory after defeat seemed inevitable. Craig Evans was one of
the changes to the Zimbabwean team, which was noticeably quieter
on the field and well led by Gavin Rennie in a pleasant
atmosphere.Scotland put Zimbabwe A in to bat on winning the toss on a warm,
generally sunny morning. The pitch was good but the outfield
thick, making run-scoring rather difficult. After Darlington
Matambanadzo played out a maiden over from James Brinkley, Mark
Vermeulen got off the mark with an exquisitely timed square cut
for four off Craig Wright, but it was to be his only scoring
stroke. With the total on 7, he was beaten and bowled by
Brinkley, with a ball that straightened and had him playing down
the wrong line.Matambanadzo, as often, settled in slowly and kept finding the
fielders, as did his new partner Neil Ferreira. After showing
some signs of frustration, Matambanadzo finally managed to get
two drives away for three, but accurate bowling frustrated them
as they tried to work the ball around for ones and twos. The
score was only 45 in the 18th over when Ferreira called for a
risky single on the leg side, Matambanadzo was late in rejecting
the call, and Ferreira was run out for 9, Douglas Lockhart
running in to field from midwicket.Gavin Rennie came close to being run out as he got off the mark
with a similarly risky single. Matambanadzo, several times
stepping down the pitch to try to force away the bowling, worked
hard and reached a well-deserved fifty, mainly through drives,
edges and some rather risky singles. He was eventually run out
for 62, responding late to a risky call by Rennie, giving the
bowler Drew Parsons time to throw down the stumps. The score was
now 117 for three, and Matambanadzo later paid tribute to the
highly disciplined and accurate bowling that made it so hard to
score.Rennie did not last much longer; forced to take risks to improve
the run rate, he skyed a catch off Brinkley to captain George
Salmond at mid-off. The score was 129 for four in the 36th over.
This left two new batsmen, Greg Lamb and Dion Ebrahim, to boost
a disappointing scoring rate, and this they did with some fine
running between wickets Ebrahim in particular nipping back and
forth like lightning. So enterprisingly did they bat that the
bowling lost some of its accuracy, and at one point Craig
McKellar earned a round of applause from his teammates for
bowling a rare dot ball.200 looked a possibility or the first time, but the boundary was
hard to reach, apart from a sweep by Ebrahim. Finally a swing to
the long-leg boundary off the final ball of the innings took the
total to 205 for four wickets, Lamb on 40 and Ebrahim 36. The
pair had added 76 runs in just under 13 overs and given their
team a decided advantage.Lockhart and Neil McRae opened steadily for Scotland, waiting for
the bad ball to punish, and put on 28 together before the latter
snicked a catch to first slip Vermeulen off Everton Matambanadzo
for 12. Ayaz Gul was almost immediately dropped, a hard chance
to the keeper off ‘Pommie’ Mbangwa, and then settled down with
Lockhart to take the scored through to 60. Lockhart opened his
shoulders and swung Andre Hoffman almost for six over long-on,
but soon after stepped down the pitch to drive Ian Engelbrecht
and was smartly stumped by Ferreira for 26. Soon afterwards Gul
(20) played a half-hearted drive against Paul Strang, yet another
introduction into this team, and lobbed a low catch towards
backward point, where it was caught by Hoffman diving low. At 68
for three, in the 25th over, Scotland were in some difficulty.Drew Parsons reacted to the situation with attack, twice pulling
Engelbrecht fiercely to square leg, the second shot to be
superbly saved by Everton Matambanadzo. Briefly the pair
threatened to take charge, but then captain George Salmond (6)
hammered Rennie at about knee-height to Mbangwa at deepish mid-on
and departed for his first failure of the tour; 85 for four.New batsman Colin Smith immediately unleashed a ferocious
off-drive for four, but then the aggressive Parsons, sweeping at
Rennie, was adjudged lbw on the front foot for 17. At 92 for
five, Scotland’s chances of victory now appeared very slim. The
middle order did not give up, with Smith and Wright batting
usefully together until the latter, as non-striker, called for a
quick leg-bye, a risky call to which Smith (13) was late in
responding, giving time for Ferreira to throw the ball to the
bowler Rennie for an easy run-out. Then Wright (19) swatted
Strang to midwicket where Vermeulen nonchalantly reached down to
pluck an ankle-high catch. At 123 for seven all seemed lost.Brinkley and Gregor Maiden was also resolved to go on fighting,
although the required scoring rate steadily rose to about eight
an over. They enjoyed a few snicks and had a few lusty blows,
until Maiden (13) swung Rennie round the corner for Darlington
Matambanadzo to grasp the ball low down. He appeared either to
lose control or toss the ball away immediately in celebration,
but the batsman walked and Scotland were 143 for eight.Then, as the pace bowlers returned, Brinkley launched a powerful
assault with some clean, straight hitting. He alone of the
batsmen in the match seemed able to reach the boundary, and with
two overs to go Scotland were still in with a chance, 21 needed.
Brinkley hit Everton Matambanadzo wide of long-on for four, then
took a single into the covers. Cox took one to the left of
midwicket, then Brinkley hit to midwicket, took two to long-on
and then a single from a difficult chance to Ebrahim at long-off.Mbangwa was to bowl the last over with 12 needed for victory.
Brinkley took one to mid-on, then Cox swung and missed. Brinkley
charged down the pitch, backing up for a single, while Ferreira
threw the ball towards the bowler’s end aiming for a run-out.
Brinkley, seeing it coming, stopped it with his foot,
deliberately and hoping he would get away with it as he later
good-naturedly admitted, and was given out ‘obstructing the
field’. He scored 54 off 47 balls, with 5 fours. This
effectively ended Scotland’s gallant challenge, Cox and McKellar
taking a single apiece before Cox (3) skyed a simple return catch
– all out 197.Both teams shook hands with smiles all round in true sporting
spirit at the end of a fine match, and both presented gifts to
each other. This is all in the true spirit of the game, which
was sadly lacking from the match against Holland.
