Tag WC-2011-News

What do we mean by captain's knock was evident today at VCA stadium in Nagpur as Elton Chigumbura evolved his team out of danger scoring a counter attacking century but, Ireland ended up chasing their target in the final over of this warm-up match for world cup 2011..

Electing to bat first, on a fresh pitch, Zimbabweans couldn't get going, specially against experienced Trent Johnston who bowled his 5 overs for just 9 runs. Both Zimbabwe openers were out by the 5th over and then young Sean Williams went in th 8th. Talented Tatenda Taibu and Craig Ervine tried to redirect the innings with a 62 run stand from 17 overs but a run out separated them and then Taibu was out to Albert van der Merwe. Meanwhile, captain Elton Chigumbura has realised Nagpur pitch has no demons and that early moisture had vaporised. he started to counter attack and was given good support by former skipper Prosper Utseya.

Zimbabweans couldn't find any further partnership but Chigumbura finished his century in the last over to take his team to a defendable total.

Ireland began their chase on a sorry note, losing aggresser Paul Stirling off the fourth ball of the innings and then experienced Niall O'Brien at the 10th over mark. In desperate need to set a platform for the chase, Alex Cusack and Andre Botha came together and added 47 runs and then Andrew White contributed 40 run stand.

Kevin O'Brien, generally an attacking batsman, carved his natural instinct to give company to Andre Botha and together these two added 99 runs which more of less won the game for the green team. O'Brien remained unbeaten as Ireland won 3 balls remaining.

The scorecard :-

Zimbabwe innings (elected to bat)
Batsman			Runs	Balls	4s	6s
Brendon Taylor	c Wilson	b Johnston	1	7	0	0
Charl Coventry	c Wilson	b Rankin	5	16	0	0
Tatenda Taibu	c White	b van der Merwe	45	78	2	0
Sean Williams	c Wilson	b Johnston	3	12	0	0
Craig Ervine	run out	(van der Merwe)	27	53	3	0
Elton Chigumbura	not out		103	81	8	3
Prosper Utseya	c White	b Botha	26	40	2	0
Shiringari Masakadza	c van der Merwe	b Botha	1	6	0	0
Graeme Cremer		b Cusack	6	5	0	0
Gregory Lamb	not out		7	3	1	0
Regie Chakabva
Chris Mpofu
Raymond Price
Edward Rainsford
Extras (20)	byes=0, lbyes=7, wides=12, noballs=1

Total = 244 for 8 wickets from 50 overs.
Bowlers :-	Overs	Mdns	Runs	Wickets	Extras
Boyd Rankin	9	1	49	1	1nb, 5wd
Trent Johnston	5	2	9	2
John Mooney	5	0	13	0
Kevin O'Brien	3	0	17	0	1 wide
Greg Dockrell	6	0	27	0	1 wide
Albert van der Merwe	7	0	28	1
Andre Botha	10	0	58	2	1 wide
Alex Cusack	5	0	36	1	1 wide

Ireland innings (target = 245 from 50 overs)
Batsman			Runs	Balls	4s	6s
Paul Stirling	c Ervine	b Masakadza	0	4	0	0
Niall O'Brien	c Masakadza	b Price	15	22	2	0
Alex Cusack	c Chigumbura	b Cremer	47	67	5	0
Andre Botha	c Cremer	b Masakadza	79	101	5	0
Andrew White		b Williams	19	31	1	0
Kevin O'Brien	not out		62	61	6	2
Gary Wilson	c Lamb	b Price	7	7	0	0
John Mooney	not out		5	4	1	0
Trent Johnston
William Portfield
Greg Dockrell
Boyd Rankin
Alber van der Merwe
Nigil Jones
Extras (6)	byes=0, lbyes=0, wides=6, noballs=0

Total = 245 for 6 wickets from 49.3 overs.. won by 4 wickets.
Bowlers :-	Overs	Mdns	Runs	Wickets	Extras
Edward Rainsford	0.1	0	0	0
Shingari Masakadza	6.2	0	39	2	3 wides
Prosper Utseya	10	0	34	0
Raymond Price	10	0	37	2
Greg Lamb	10	1	52	0	1 wide
Graeme Cremer	9	0	58	1
Brendon Taylor	2	0	9	0
Sean Williams	2	0	9	1