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Eddie Chikamhi–Senior Sports Reporter 

ALL-ROUNDER Wessly Madhevere joined an exclusive company of hattrick heroes for the Zimbabwe national cricket team yesterday when he inspired the Chevrons to a thrilling one run win over Netherlands at Harare Sports Club.

The victory was key for the Chevrons to level the series 1-1, ahead of the third match tomorrow, which will be Zimbabwe’s last ICC World Cup Super League game.

Madhevere joined Eddo Brandes and Prosper Utseya as the only other Zimbabwean to record a hat-trick in ODIs when he took the ball in the 44th over, just as the Netherlands looked to cause another upset, chasing Zimbabwe’s 271 runs. He had Colin Ackermann (28) stumped by Clive Madande the first ball of the over and then century hero from the previous match Teja Nidamanuru (0) was bowled off the very next ball before Paul van Meekeren suffered the same fate off the third delivery.

Madhevere’s hat-trick was the 50th in ODIs and the 22-year—old was thrilled by the milestone.

“Firstly, I never imagined myself getting a hattrick but it happened today and all credit go to the coaches and the guys that believed in me. There is no better feeling than this, to be honest. Hopefully I will be able to do it again,” said Madhevere.

Zimbabwe lost the first ODI by three wickets and they needed a strong response yesterday. After winning the toss the Chevrons experienced a rollercoaster innings.

They started well before losing a couple of wickets towards the middle overs and eventually settling for a competitive score of 271 runs all out in 49.2 overs.

The opening partnership of skipper Craig Ervine (39), and Wessely Madhevere (43) looked solid in the power-play overs but the Netherlands restricted them to just on 61 runs.

The captain fell to Ackermann before van Meekeren trapped Gary Ballance to leave Zimbabwe on 80/2.

All-rounder Sean Williams, who had last played ODI cricket six months ago in Australia, returned to the format with a sensible knock of 77 runs after recovering from a finger injury he suffered in January.

He was one of the two changes made by the hosts for the second ODI. Zimbabwe brought in Williams and Tendai Chatara for Innocent Kaia and Richard Ngarava.

Williams featured in a key 104 runs wicket partnership with Clive Madande after Dutch leg spinner Shariz Ahmad single-handedly destabilised the Zimbabwe middle order with his incredible five-wicket haul.

The 19-year-old claimed the five wickets in succession and finished with figures of 5-43 after claiming the key wickets of Madhevere, Williams, Sikandar Raza (0), Ryan Burl (8) and Brad Evans (0).

Madande is becoming useful with the bat down the order as he scored his second career half century in as many matches with his 52 runs yesterday.

But it was worrying for Zimbabwe to get bowled out by the Netherlands in both matches of the series. And, again, there were two dropped catches and some fielding errors during the Netherlands’ chase.

The game looked evenly balanced when the visitors took to bat. But Zimbabwe got the needed breakthrough when Blessing Muzarabani broke the partnership of Vikramjit Singh and Max O’Dowd in the powerplay overs. 

The Netherlands had put on 41 runs on the scorecard when Muzarabani had Singh (14) caught by Wellington Masakadza.

The Chevrons had a chance to stop the progress by the Dutch side but wicketkeeper Chatara failed to hold on to a chest-height ball and Tom Cooper was dropped at 34, with the visitors on 99/1.

Cooper added 40 more runs to his tally and was later run out following a brilliant throw by Ervine. He had done considerable damage though in his 125-run stand for the second wicket with O’Dowd (81).

Then Ackermann (28) was also dropped by Ervine after presenting a catch at midwicket while he was still on 20 runs.

The Netherlands still appeared on top of the situation but Sikandar Raza got the big wicket of Max O’Dowd, trapped lbw on 81 runs in the 41st overs

Then two overs later, Madhevere turned the game on its head with a remarkable hattrick. From 213/3, the Netherlands slid to 214/6 at the end of the 44th over.

Just a few moments later, Raza thought he had taken another wicket but as Ahmad was about to leave, television replays showed the Zimbabwean all-rounder had over-stepped the line. Ahmad made use of the lifeline and teamed up with his skipper Scott Edwards for some brilliant running between the wickets to keep the scoreboard ticking towards the target.

The teenage cricketer however could not stay long following a run out while attempting a tight single. 

Edwards hung on and hit a six off Chatara and they needed 23 runs from the last two overs.

Going at over a run a ball, Edwards was the biggest threat for Zimbabwe but the danger was taken away by Raza when he had the Dutch skipper caught by Brad EvanS while trying to clear the deep midwicket boundary. 

Raza finished strongly with three wickets for 39 runs in his nine overs.

Chatara took the last over needing to defend 18 runs but things almost went out of hand as tail-enders Fred Klassen and Ryan Klein combined to make life difficult for the hosts.

They managed to reduce the target down to four runs from the last ball following some impressive big hits in-between. But then, they fell just short following a run out while going for a third run, which could have left the scores square and kill the series for Zimbabwe.