Streak defends troops as records tumble

By Mehluli Sibanda

Zimbabwe coach Heath Streak has leapt to the defence of his players despite their humiliation at the hands of Afghanistan in the five-match ODI series which ended at Harare Sports Club on Sunday.

Records tumbled as the Chevrons were destroyed in the five-match decider, falling to a 106-run defeat through the Duckworth/Lewis method as the Asians took the series 3-2.

Zimbabwe, in pursuit of a revised target of 161 in 22 overs after rain disrupted play, folded for 54 runs in 13.5 overs.

That was Zimbabwe’s fourth lowest ODI total, sandwiched in between the 44 they made against Bangladesh in 2009 and the 65 they compiled against India in 2005.

Zimbabwe were removed for their lowest ever score against Afghanistan, beating the 82 they made in December 2015 in the United Arab Emirates. Afghanistan now hold the record for the least number of overs taken to bowl out a side in an ODI.

It was also the third time that Afghanistan have beaten Zimbabwe in a five-match series, with two of those wins achieved in Zimbabwe, while the other came in the UAE.

Not even a big crowd at Harare Sports Club could inspire the Chevrons, who had provided their fans with hope after fighting back from 0-2 down to tie the contest 2-2 and force a decider.

Others will probably say the weather didn’t help their cause but poor and comic fielding saw Afghanistan post 253 for nine in 50 overs, their highest score coming from Rahat Shah, who made 50 while Mohammad Nabi contributed 48.

Zimbabwe’s bowling, which had been their pillar of strength throughout the series, was not helped by wayward fielding, which saw a couple of boundaries being conceded could have been avoided.

Pace bowler, Tendai Chatara, who had bowled brilliantly throughout the series, gave away 71 runs in nine overs.

He even failed to effect a run out when he ran with the ball all the way to the stumps, only to throw it aimlessly and miss the target.

Lanky pace bowler Christopher Mpofu led the way with three for 46 in nine, while left arm seamer Richard Ngarava picked up two for 37 in seven overs.

Slow bowlers, Cremer and Williams had one wicket apiece.

Zimbabwe never recovered from losing Peter Moor in the second over, the batsman breaking his bat while trying to put away a delivery from Dawlat Zadran.

From there, it was carnage all over with Cremer’s unbeaten 14 the highest score.

“We can’t just keep changing the team every time we lose, we got to show a lot of faith and these are guys we have and they have to do the job,” said Streak.

“I felt we had a few run out opportunities, we didn’t bowl as we did in the last two games maybe if we had restricted them to 220 we might not had to come out of the blocks to try chase down a score like that. Not making excuses, our guys are better than that, the likes of Ervine, Williams, these guys have scored runs at international level, so there is no reason why we couldn’t get closer and challenge these guys.”

Cremer called on Zimbabwe Cricket to organise more fixtures for the national team in order for them to compete with the best in the world.

“Our batting has been poor, I think it’s just down to possibly not enough matches, not enough match time.

“They came hard at us, they came quite aggressive, I thought they were a bit lucky to be honest, nicks down third man, credit to them, they put up a good score on the board and then they bowled and we couldn’t handle the pressure in the afternoon,” said Cremer.

Just to show how Zimbabwe struggled with the bat, Afghanistan have four of their batsman, Shah, skipper Asghar Stanikzai, Mohammad Shahzad and Mohammad Nabi as the top scorers in the series. Australia-based Solomon Mire was the highest contributor with the bat for Zimbabwe, with a total of 108 runs, scored at an average of 21.60 and best of 54.

Mpofu was the leading wicket taker in the series with 12 wickets, followed by Afghanistan leg spinner Rashid Khan, who picked up 10, the same number as Nabi and Chatara.

Afghanistan head back to their adopted home of Greater Noida, India, to play against Ireland in March before they travel to West Indies in July for a tour made up of five ODIs and three Twenty20 Internationals.

For Zimbabwe, the only confirmed tour is the trip to Sri Lanka in June with ZC said to be trying to secure fixtures against smaller countries such as Namibia, Scotland and Netherlands.The Herald