FAST AND FURIOUS

FOR a team with a Windies pace legend, Courtney Walsh, in its coaching set-up, this was as close to perfection as possible as Zimbabwe’s battery of pace bowlers ripped Oman apart in Colombo yesterday. Spin may have been the winning mantra for teams heading into Colombo ahead of the start of this T20 World Cup but Zimbabwe, however, had other ideas as their seamers shared nine of the ten Oman wickets to fall. It set up a big weight-wicket win at the Sinhalese Sports Club.

Having opted to field first, Zimbabwe unleashed its pace battery in all its glory as the troika of Blessing Muzarabani, Richard Ngarava and Brad Evans wreaked havoc on a hapless Oman batting unit. Muzarabani got the new ball to seam around sharply, castling skipper Jatinder Singh with a beautiful in-ducker before Ngarava followed suit with the wicket of Hammad Mirza, who tried an uncharacteristic heave across the line, only to hand wicket-keeper Brendan Taylor a regulation catch. It was a sign of things to come as Oman’s trial against the short ball was not a fond one.

They tried attacking their way out of it, only to bring the catchers into play. Muzarabani, who was named man-of-the-man, made merry with a double-whammy in the fourth over as Aamer Kaleem and Karan Sonavale both perished in quick succession. Oman found themselves at 24 for 4 by the end of the PowerPlay but matters worsened as Sikandar Raza soon cleaned up Wasim Ali.

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A recovery ensued in the form of a 42-run stand between Sufyan Mehmood and Vinayak Shukla – the latter taking a particular liking to the spin of Brian Bennett, peeling off a hat-trick of boundaries in the 12th over. Raza wisely turned to his pacers again and Ngarava broke the stand – once again off a short ball. The extra bounce brought about Shukla’s undoing as he attempted a dab which found a diving Taylor behind the stumps.

Jiten Ramanandi came and went in the very same over, heaving a short delivery to Dion Myers at mid-wicket. Evans wasn’t to be left behind and he got rid of Mehmood, who looked to break free, only to pull a short ball down the throat of deep square leg.

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