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Eddie Chikamhi Senior Sports Reporter
SIKANDAR Raza’s man-of-the-match knock proved the difference as Zimbabwe rallied from a difficult position to dismiss Ireland by 107 runs and claim control of the Super Six in the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier at Harare Sports Club yesterday. The Chevrons, who appear to have perfected the art of pulling off important wins when it seems unlikely, wowed their supporters with yet another fighting display despite having struggled with the bat in the morning.

At some point it looked like they would not last the distance after the Irish bowlers had reduced the home team to 139/7 inside 33 overs.

But Zimbabwe still scrambled to 211 for the loss of nine wickets in their allotted 50 overs before skittling their opponents out for 104 runs in 34.2 overs, thanks to an effective armoury of spin attack led by the skipper Graeme Cremer.

On a day Zimbabwe’s batsmen could not get their innings going against disciplined bowling from their opponents, they needed someone to carry them on his shoulders and, as he has often does in this tournament, Raza answered the call.

The 31-year old all-rounder was outstanding with the bat as he claimed a third man-of-the-match accolade in this tournament for his unbeaten 69 runs.

Raza’s knock, which he achieved with the help mostly of partnerships with the tail-enders, lifted Zimbabwe to a decent total after the hosts had stumbled in their innings.

The home side could have easily succumbed to a measly total but Raza literally took matters into his hands and finished off with two big sixes in the last over to help Zimbabwe cross the 200-run mark.

The vociferous crowd that thronged the arena yesterday was also outstanding as they kept on cheering despite the Chevrons having appeared down and out at the innings break.

“I cannot believe this. When I got back to rooms after halfway stage, my head was down. My teammates said this was enough, we can fight.

“I was wanting to have a partnership but ran out Craig (Ervine). Blessing (Muzarabani) hanging out there was good. This trophy is presented to me, but it belongs to all of us. The crowd is actually the 12th man here,” said Raza.

Cremer’s 3-18 and Tendai Chisoro’s 3-22 delivered the win for the Chevrons as Ireland suffered their second defeat of the tournament to remain rooted on two points while Zimbabwe soared to five ahead of the last two games against West Indies and United Arab Emirates.

Crucially for Zimbabwe, the win yesterday will certainly boost their confidence knowing they have not lost a match in this tournament in 29 outings spread across three decades.

However, the Chevrons yesterday found themselves in an uncomfortable position after they were sent in to bat first.

Cephas Zhuwao and Solomon Mire opened for Zimbabwe with the hope the two big hitters will give the momentum the team required to set the stage for the middle order batsmen to flourish.

But Zhuwao could not last long caught at deep midwicket after making flying start with two big sixes on his way to 20 from 18 balls.

The scoreboard read 1-21 when number three Hamilton Masakadza stepped in but his partnership with Mire (11) was wrecked before it blossomed when the opener was stumped by Niall O’Brien off the bowling of Andy McBride.

Masakadza (18) was soon to follow next without a run added to the innings as Zimbabwe fell to 50/3 after 9.5 overs. Wickets continued to fall at regular intervals with Ireland paceman Tim Murtagh the pick of the bowlers with figures of 3/36.

Besides Raza’s 13th ODI fifty, the rest of the Zimbabwe’s batsmen were poor with former captain Brendan Taylor the second highest scorer on 25 runs.

Still the supporters hoped for a miracle. But they fell into dead silence in the 26th over when Craig Ervine fell prey to a close run out call to leave Zimbabwe on 112/6 with the tail coming up.

However the 42-run eighth wicket partnership between Chisoro and Raza provided the ray of hope that Zimbabwe could actually bat through the innings after the skipper Cremer had resigned to the fact they would not surpass 160.

It all looked grim when Chisoro edged Murtagh’s slow ball to the keeper to leave the scores on 181/8. Kyle Jarvis (1) and Blessing Muzarabani (1) provided the companionship for Raza in the final overs.

But set a modest total Ireland never get going with nine players going for single digits scores.

Opener Paul Stirling (41) provided the only resistance but he could not find support until he was run out to leave his side reeling on 86/6 after 27 overs.

“We know we can defend low totals. That’s what we said when we were coming out. It was brilliant today first of all to get to 210 when we could have easily been bowled out for 160.

“Raza was excellent again with the bat. He held the innings together and brought us to somewhat of a respectable total and then our bowlers were sensational,” said Cremer.

TEAM     PLAYED   WON  LOST  TIED   POINTS         NNR

Zim        3               2         0        1        5                   0.727

S/land   3               2         0        1        5                   0.588

Windies                 3         2        1        0                4      0.666

Ireland  3               1         2        0        2                   0.465

Afghan                  3         1        2        0                2            -0.023

UAE       3              0              3              0              0           -2.493