PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad – IT was a disappointing start yesterday (Feb. 28) to the West Indies’ home series against Zimbabwe as the hosts were stunned by their opponents’ superior spin and lost by 26 runs in both sides’ lowest scoring Twenty20 match ever.
The dry, hard pitch at Queen’s Park Oval favoured spin bowlers from the start, as evidenced by the early indomitable performance of Sueliman Benn.
Benn plowed through the top of Zimbabwe’s order, picking up 4 for 6 to leave the visitor’s with a troubling 11/4 in the fourth over.
While the upper order was saved by a 44 from opener Hamilton Masakadza off of 67 balls, the turning point of Zimbabwe’s batting was no doubt Elton Chigumbura’s inspired 34 from 19 balls.
Facing continual pressure from Daren Sammy, who ended the day with the third best bowling performance in Twenty20 history—five wickets from 3.5 overs, Chigumbura knocked two fours and two sixes and helped his side to post 105/all out from 19.5 overs.
West Indies seemed poised to break their losing streak following a difficult limited overs tour of Australia, but Zimbabwe also took full advantage of the pitch conditions and sent spin bowlers out for 18 of their overs.
Despite having a majority of their top international players back on the field from various injury leaves, Denesh Ramdin’s side lacked any real hitting power in their chase and ended at 79/7 from their overs.
Ramdin and Shivnarine Chanderpaul were the top-scorers of the side with 23 and 20 runs, respectively, and brought in two of the West Indies three fours for the day.
Spinners Graeme Cremer and Greg Lamb were the stars of Zimbabwe’s bowling attack as they picked up three and two wickets respectively out of the seven.
“You have got to give credit to Zimbabwe. They played the conditions far better than we did. The wicket was pretty ordinary, not necessarily conducive to stroke-making,” recently-appointed Head Coach of the West Indies Ottis Gibson said following the only Twenty20 match of the tour.
Gibson said that his side buckled under the pressure from Zimbabwe and he was “bitterly disappointed” with the defeat, but was looking forward to a better performance at the five One Day International matches scheduled over the next two weeks.
