Harare: Stand-in captain Sean Williams slammed a majestic 174 off 101 balls to lead Zimbabwe to a mammoth 304-run victory over USA in their Group A match of Men’s ODI World Cup Qualifiers at the Harare Sports Club, here on Monday.
Apart from Williams, opener Joylord Gumbie’s 78, as well as whirlwind knocks of 48 and 47 from Sikandar Raza and Ryan Burl respectively propelled Zimbabwe to their highest ODI total of a mammoth 408/6 in 50 overs.
The hosts then bowled out USA for just 104 in 25.1 overs to seal their fourth straight win in the group, also the second biggest winning margin in terms of runs in the history of ODIs. Raza and Richard Ngarava took two wickets each as only three USA batters could reach double figures in an innings which also had three run outs.
Pushed into batting first, Gumbie and Innocent Kaia added 56 runs for the first wicket. Kaia eventually fell to Jessy Singh while going for a loft in the leg-side. It brought the in-form Williams to the crease, who showed signs of aggression by hitting 6,4,4 off Nisarg Patel’s bowling in the 15th over.
The veteran southpaw took the lead in his stand with Gumbie, and reached his half-century in merely 33 balls, followed by bringing up his century in just 65 balls, also the second-fastest ODI century scored by a Zimbabwe batter.
Despite the loss of Gumbie, Williams marched forward and found an able ally in Raza as they brought up their fifty-run stand in merely 27 balls to pile on the pain on USA bowlers. By the time Raza fell for 48, the tournament hosts had already crossed the 300-run mark in the 43rd over.
Burl then lifted Zimbabwe even further in their innings with a quickfire 47 off 16 balls, and Williams went on to score freely before falling for 174 in the 49th over. Tadiwanashe Marumani Jessy Singh for 19 runs in the final over, including two fours and a six to take Zimbabwe past 400, effectively batting USA out of the game.
Ngarava drew first blood when he had Steven Taylor caught behind in the third over. In his very next over, he got Sushant Modani to fall in similar fashion. Things got worse for USA as skipper Monank Patel fell in the sixth over to Brad Evans, followed by Aaron Jones and Shayan Jahangir dismissed via run-outs.
After Gajanand Singh was trapped lbw by Raza, the USA were in tatters at 45/6. The ignominy of not even scoring a hundred runs was saved for USA by some lower-order runs from Abhishek Paradkar (24) and Jessy Singh (21).
Brief Scores: Zimbabwe 408/6 in 50 overs (Sean Williams 174, Joylord Gumbie 78; Abhishek Paradkar 3/78, Jessy Singh 2/97) beat USA 104 in 25.1 overs (Abhishek Paradkar 24, Jessy Singh 21; Sikandar Raza 2/15, Richard Ngarava 2/25) by 304 runs.
(IANS)
