Taibu, Williams’ milestones fail to save Zimbabwe

By Lawrence Moyo (21/02/08)

TATENDA Taibu and Sean Williams reached limited overs cricket milestones on Tuesday but it counted for little as Zimbabwe slumped to a heartbreaking defeat against struggling bizhub Highveld Lions in a South African MTN Domestic Championship match in Potchefstroom.

The three-wicket defeat at the Sedgars Park saw Zimbabwe slump to the bottom of the seven-team championship with just four points from five matches while the Highveld Lions moved into sixth with eight points.

It was a disappointing defeat for Zimbabwe, who had done very well to beat defending champions, Nashua Cape Cobras by 39 runs in their fourth game at Harare Sports Club on Sunday.

Tuesday’s defeat also affected Zimbabwe’s outside chances of making the semi-final and it was not looking any good last night as they were dismissed for 120 by the Nashua Dolphins in Durban.

Taibu and Williams scored half centuries but failed to maximise on the good starts to all the way as the Zimbabwe Chevrons, who were 156-2 at one stage, stumbled to 222/9 off their allotted 45 overs, a total the hosts surpassed with three balls to spare.

Taibu, playing his 150th limited overs match, went into the match needing 22 runs to reach 3000 limited overs runs and made 51 while Williams sought 38 runs in his 45th match to breach the 1 000-run mark and he finished as Zimbabwe top-scorer with 89.

The two featured in a 106-run partnership for the third wicket but their failure to convert the fifties into centuries meant that Zimbabwe failed to make a competitive total of 250-plus which was a possibility halfway through the innings.

Unfortunately, Zimbabwe — who had failed to take advantage of the field restrictions during the Power Plays — could not stage the grand finish expected from such a strong one-day international batting line-up as the middle-order collapsed.

The slide began in the 35th over when Taibu, desperate to improve the run rate, went down the

ground to man-of-the-match Friedel de Wet but could not clear the fielder at long-on and that sparked a collapse.

Brendan Taylor (3) fell to de Wet in the 37th over after an attempted pull shot over deep square leg resulted in a thick top edge that went to fine leg.

All-rounder Elton Chigumbura (1), who was sent back by his partner, fell to a brilliant direct hit by Highveld Lions’ captain Justin Ontong while going for a tight single after Williams drove straight to cover (Ontong).

Williams was the next batsman to be run out while trying to force a run off his own batting at the start of the 41st over while fellow Matabeleland all-rounder Keith Dabengwa (6) was the other run out victim the next over.

With Dabengwa’s departure, Zimbabwe were now content with a modest score of 220 which they managed to do with captain Prosper Utseya finishing unbeaten on 23.

The Highveld Lions started their response well before a late collapse, which saw them move from 151/2 in the 31st over to 202/7 in the 42nd over but they managed to exploit Tawanda Mupariwa, who bowled two of the last three overs.

They needed 21 runs from the last 18 balls and managed 15 from Mupariwa’s nine balls with Raymond Price restricting them to just three runs in the penultimate over.

Chigumbura was the pick of the Zimbabwe bowlers with three wickets for 32 in eight overs.