Luckless Zimbabwe crash out of Sharjah Cup
The unexpected never happened as pathetic Zimbabwe were for the second time put in their place by the unbeaten Sri Lankans who won by the comfortable margin of 79 runs Tuesday to make sure of playing in Sunday's final in the Khaleej Times Trophy here
Rehan Siddiqui
31-Oct-2001
The unexpected never happened as pathetic Zimbabwe were for
the second time put in their place by the unbeaten Sri
Lankans who won by the comfortable margin of 79 runs Tuesday
to make sure of playing in Sunday's final in the Khaleej
Times Trophy here at the Sharjah Stadium.
Requiring 251 for victory to have an outside chance of
making the final, Zimbabwe, finished at 171 for eight in
their allotted 50 over. As it happened like in their two
previous outings, Zimbabwe batsmen from the outset never
appeared to be with any chance of upsetting the applecart.
Apart from the second wicket stand between Stuart Carlisle
(37) and Trevor Gripper (26) that realized 61 runs,
Zimbabwe's batting woes continued as wickets fell at regular
interval.
Although Doug Marillier, batting lower down, managed an
unbeaten 52, hitting two fours off the last two deliveries
to reach the landmark, there was no resistance at the other
end.
The Sri Lankans always looked in command and bowled tightly
without ever looking menacing and were never threatened by
an inept and out of depth Zimbabwe batting for whom the
losing streak extended to 15 and could become 16 Wednesday
when they face Pakistan unless the latter give a similar
performance as that which handed Bangladesh their most
memorable triumph in 1999 World Cup.
In an uninteresting tie that provided hardly any worthwhile
individual feat, Sri Lanka's stylish batsman Mahela
Jayawardena was named Man-of-the Match for his 63 that
proved to the highest score of the match.
Earlier, diminutive Jayawardena (63) and reliable Russel
Arnold (55) put on 111 for the fourth wicket to steer Sri
Lanka from possible low score against the modest Zimbabwe
bowling resources.
The two joined in the rescue act at the total of 62 for with
three skipper Sanath Jayasuriya (25), Avishka Gunawardena
(14) and Marvan Atapattu (9) back in the dressing room.
Slowly and gradually the two got on top of the Zimbabwe
attack and reached fifties before throwing their wickets
when centuries were up for grabs. Arnold hooked straight
into the throat of Brent off Streak. Jayawardena holed out
to Gripper off Marillier.
For Arnold it was his first dismissal in three outings. Of
the later batsmen, only Kumar Sangakkara made any
significant contribution in his 35 before losing his stumps
aiming for a big hit off medium pacer Gary Brent, the best
of Zimbabwe bowlers.
Although former skipper Heath Streak picked up four wickets
including both the openers he proved expensive and conceded
59 runs from his quota of 10 overs, his first over costing
14 runs.