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Eddie Chikamhi
Senior Sports Reporter
FROM the highs of beating cricket powerhouses Pakistan to the controversies against South Africa and then losing to the Netherlands, who are the lowest-ranked T20I team at this ICC Men’s T20 Cricket World Cup in Australia, the Zimbabwe cricket team have seen it all.

The five-wicket defeat to the Netherlands yesterday at the Adelaide Oval was a huge blow to their newly-built reputation.

Zimbabwe have won many admirers because of their brave performances at this T20 World Cup. They have been involved in some exciting encounters, including the nail-biting one run win over Pakistan and a nerve-wrecking loss to Bangladesh in Group 2.

But this has been some kind of a roller-coaster ride for Zimbabwe at the ICC T20 World Cup where they experienced some highs and unexpected lows.

The Chevrons yesterday lost to the Netherlands in a game that many people had tipped them to win on account of their fighting spirit. They put up a flat show with the bat as they were bowled out for 117 runs in 19.2 overs after winning the toss and opting to bat.

The bowlers really did not have much to work with under the circumstances. And, this was always going to be an easy chase for the Netherlands, who sailed home to 120/5 with exactly two overs remaining.

Zimbabwe’s batting was their biggest undoing. They found themselves in all sorts of trouble early in the powerplay overs when they lost three wickets for just 20 runs.

Wessly Madhevere (1), skipper Craig Ervine (3) and Regis Chakabva were all dismissed inside the first six overs. But Sikandar Raza came in with a 24-ball 40 and together with Sean Williams (28 from 23) they put up a 48-run partnership for the fourth wicket.

Besides, no other batsman managed double figures as Milton Shumba (2), Ryan Burl (2) and Luke Jongwe (6) were all easily accounted for before the tail came in. Paul van Meekeren was the chief destroyer with his 3-29.

The Netherlands’ chase was built around Max O’Dowd’s half century after the opener held the innings together with his 52 runs from 47 balls.

Richard Ngarava and Blessing Muzarabani shared four wickets equally between themselves but the Dutch remained resolute in their quest for a maiden win in four games at this year’s T20 World Cup.

Zimbabwe skipper Craig Ervine was left to ponder whether the decision to bat first was the correct one.

“It was probably one of those tosses where we were split down the middle as to bowl or bat. We kind of thought it’s one of those you don’t have to lose but have to choose for yourselves.

“But credit to Netherlands, they bowled very well during the powerplay, they put us under the pump and we couldn’t really recover from there.

“Raza and Williams did really well to sort of get us back into the game but unfortunately we couldn’t finish it off.

“With the start of the (Netherlands) innings, I thought there wasn’t as much movement as there was when we started our innings with the bat. Credit to the Netherlands they came out fighting today,” said Ervine.

The defeat was definitely something the Chevrons never looked forward to, especially after making a solid show at the start of the competition and getting maximum points in a spirited fight against Pakistan and then losing it to Bangladesh on the final ball of another nail-biting contest.

But the passion was lacking yesterday, especially with the bat.

Maybe it was because of fatigue or that complacency was beginning to creep into their heads.

Whatever it was, the defeats to Bangladesh and the Netherlands put paid to any chances of making the semi-finals, which had still looked a possibility after the first three games.

Losing to the Netherlands, who are the lowest ranked T20I team at this year’s World Cup, was a bit unsettling. Chevrons coach Dave Houghton at some point said the Chevrons should aim to win every day against teams like Netherlands, who are an Associate Member with ODI status.

The Netherlands are ranked 17th in the ICC T20I rankings and Zimbabwe are 11th. The Dutch had lost all three Super 12 games before playing Zimbabwe, who now need to battle hard to finish the tournament among the top eight so as to avoid having to go through the qualifying process again for the next edition of the ICC T20 World Cup.

The Chevrons are currently in fourth place in Group 2 with three points from four games. Zimbabwe are set to play group leaders India in their last group match in Melbourne on Sunday.