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Graeme Cremer

Mehluli Sibanda in BULAWAYO
ZIMBABWE fought long and hard to force a draw of the second cricket Test against the West Indies at Queens Sports Club yesterday even though the tourists won the series. Regis Chakabva struck a pressure-relieving unbeaten 71 runs, shared in an unbroken stand of 91 for the eighth-wicket with skipper Graeme Cremer, which saw the two bat for 48.4 overs to ensure Zimbabwe escaped with a draw on the last day.

The home team made 371 for seven in 144 overs, with a lead of 179 runs but the players shook hands with an hour to play as it became clear there would be no winner. It was the first time since January 2005 that Zimbabwe had played out a Test draw with the last match which failed to produce a result being the second Test against Bangladesh in Dhaka 12 years ago. Man-of-the-match Sikandar Raza top scored for the home team with 89 runs, his second half ton of the match.

He became only the second man in Test cricket to take five wickets and score more than 80 runs in both innings after South African Jacques Kallis Cape Town did so in January 1999 against West Indies. West Indies leg spinner Devendra Bishoo took home the man-of-the-series award for picking up 13 wickets in the two Tests. Cremer was disappointed with losing the Test series but glad to secure a draw in the second Test.

“It’s a bit disappointing, obviously, to lose a Test series but we were behind a lot of this Test match so credit to the guys for fighting. We were quite happy with the draw in the end and we didn’t feel like we had enough runs on the board to be able to declare and it’s probably not a wicket where you can bowl a team out in 30 overs,’’ he said.

Raza was denied his second Test hundred when he was bowled by Jason Holder in the third over after lunch.

Scores

Zimbabwe 326 (Masakadza 147, Raza 80, Moor 52, Roach 3/44) and 301-7 (Raza 89, Chakabva 71*, Gabriel 2/34, Roach 2/37) West Indies 448 (Holder 110, Dowrich 103, Powell 90, Raza 5/99, Chisoro 3/113)