Zimbabwe opened their account in the tenth edition of the T20 World Cup, courtesy of a eight wicket win over Oman in Colombo, which was set up by a disciplined effort from the bowling unit led by the fast bowling duo of Richard Ngarava and Blessing Muzarabani.
The Early Breakthrough
Opting to bowl first after winning the toss, Zimbabwean bowlers were right on the money from the first ball as they started causing the damage from the second over itself when Muzarabani got the better of Jatinder Singh on the first ball of the second over.
The wicket of Oman’s captain was followed by the dismissal of the team’s number three batter, Hammad Mirz, who got out without troubling the scorers.
The Middle Phase
The result of regular strikes by Zimbabwe’s bowling attack meant that Oman could only accumulate 24 runs in the first six overs and were not able to recover from that, with the scorecard reading 27-5 at one stage.
The Jatinder Singh led side was in desperte need of a partnership in order to get back into the game and that is what the pair of Sufyan Mehmod and Vinayak Shukla did by adding 42 crucial run sfor the sixth wicket and took the team beyond the 50 run mark but were dismissed in quick succession in an attempt to get the opposition bowlers under some sort of pressure in the final five overs.
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The Discipline
Credit must be given to Zimbabwe’s bowlers, who kept the Oman batters in check and didn’t let them free their arms in all three phases of the innings. It was the fast bowlers who did the bulk of the damage, with the trio of Blessing Muzarabani, Richard Ngarava and Brad Evans picking nine wickets between them.
The pacers were well supported by captain Sikandar Raza, who bowled economically, giving away 17 runs in his quota of four overs and picking up a wicket and played his part in bowling Oman out for 103 in their first match of the competition.
The Drama
Chasing a relatively easy target of 104 runs, Zimbabwe lost a couple of wickets after getting off to a quick start as the openers added 30 runs in just 19 balls.
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Oman might have fancied their chances of giving Zimbabwe a run for their moey but an important fifty-run partnership between Brian Bennett and Brendan Taylor nullified those chances and took the team close before Taylor was retired hurt, giving Sikandar Raza to hit the winning runs.
The Result
Zimbabwe’s eight-wicket win will give the team a lot of confidence and boost their net run rate early in the tournament, while Oman would look to make a strong comeback in the next game.
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