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Chris Mpofu

Robson Sharuko:Senior Sports Editor

ON the special occasion of their patron’s 93rd birthday, the Chevrons refused to disintegrate and transformed a looming disaster into a sensational record-breaking victory at Harare Sports Club yesterday.Faced with the possibility of a humbling defeat, one of their worst in history, Zimbabwe’s cricketers somehow turned it around and, from nowhere, produced the kind of stuff their long-suffering fans have been crying out for during a miserable run for the team.

And, by the end of one of the most memorable days at Harare Sports Club, they were celebrating an incredible victory that ensured the ODI series against Afghanistan would not be decided after only three games.

Such has been the Chevrons’ spectacular fall from grace, in recent months, they had disappeared from the back pages of national newspapers with their routine defeats usually found tucked away in the inside pages.

The back pages of newspapers are usually reserved for the best stories of the day and, in a country that has seen its Warriors find a way to compete again with the cream of the continent and the Mighty Warriors dancing with the finest at the Olympics, it’s probably understandable why the Chevrons — with their repeated failures — were no longer the stuff that makes big stories.

Their first ODI defeat, at the hands of the vastly-improving Afghans, might have been because of a stroke of all-fortune — the rain and a crucial wicket falling at the wrong time combining to give the Asians victory through the Duckworth-Lewis method.

The second was a loss that paraded all the shortcomings of a team badly short on confidence, with their batting woes returning to haunt them, stalk them, paralyse them and then, ultimately, destroy their chase as they wilted to another below 200 score.

And, when fortune favoured them yesterday to win the toss and, for the first in this series, to bat first and set a target rather than chase one, the Chevrons turned on a batting show short on quality and long on suicidal tendencies that made them cricket version of kamikaze fighters, as they folded up for just 129.

And, with the Asians brimming with confidence, the occasional break of sunshine in the afternoon probably helping the conditions, the Chevrons were set for a humiliation.

After all, they had never defended such a low ODI score since they managed to hold off England, after posting 134, to somehow win a World Cup encounter by nine runs in 1992 at Albury. Memories of that victory, just like trying to remember the last time the Chevrons won a match, might have long faded from the memory and — abandoned by their fans and being ambushed by a media waiting to hammer them for their latest show of disgrace — the local cricketers were set for a day to forget.

And, when the Asians raced to 63-3 by the break, the script for them was going to plan and the horror show for the hosts was unfolding, with each run rubbing salt into their gushing wounds.

Then, the Asians needed just 16 and you can call it what you like — two sixes and a four or four fours — which probably could be done and dusted in an over or two, with five wickets in hand and plenty of overs to spare.

Surely, there could only be one winner and one poor loser.

Then, everything changed!

Just like that, the Chevrons remembered how to fight, although some will say the Asians decided to self-destruct, but who cares when you are a Zimbabwean. And this is your team, these are your men, the colours they wear are yours and the flag they fly is yours?

Chris Mpofu and Sean Williams, back in the team after passing a fitness test, then took matters into their hands and Afghanistan lost five wickets for five runs in a dramatic collapse to hand the Chevrons an unlikely three-run victory.

You don’t need to be a cricket addict to love such drama, such never-say-die spirit, such a sensational fightback, and when Williams had Amir Hamza caught at point by Richard Ngarava for two, it was all over for the Asians in 29.3 overs.

On a special day when their patron, President Mugabe, was celebrating his 93rd birthday, the Chevrons simply refused to spoil the party mood and fought long and hard to produce a fightback they should use to gain the momentum they need to turn this series around.

Their coach Heath Streak, probably the best bowler to emerge from this country, would have been proud of how his men clawed their way back with the ball and their fans will say, for a team whose coaching staff also includes one of South Africa’s bowling icons in Makhaya Ntin, this should be happening more often.

“It’s one of those days when you get back to your hotel room and you don’t know what happened,” Mpofu told ESPNCricinfo.

“The people at the front desk said they came in and just walked past without saying anything. I don’t think they could believe it. We also can’t believe it. It was just amazing.”

Of course, it was Chris.

“Got out of jail @zimbabwe cricket thanks to @sean14williams & @chrismpofu . . . now start getting some runs,” the Chevrons former British coach, Allan Butcher, tweeted.

And The Sunday Mail Sports Editor, Mako Mutimukulu, said it was the manner they turned it around that was special.

“How we won it is bewildering,” he tweeted. “We stay alive in the series.”

Of course, we do Mako.

But one swallow doesn’t make a summer and the challenge for the Chevrons is to do it again and again — bat better, field better and bowl better — even though beating yesterday’s bowling show will take something special.