The pacers stole the show as Zimbabwe returned to the T20 World Cup with a thumping eight-wicket win against Oman in Colombo on Monday. The tall pace trio of Blessing Muzarabani, Brad Evans and Richard Ngarava engineered Oman’s batting collapse on a bouncy SSC track, before Brian Bennett and Brendan Taylor took them home with a clinical third-wicket partnership.
Zimbabwe’s three-man pace attack, all well over six feet tall, claimed nine of the ten wickets to fall. This was the first time their fast bowlers achieved this feat in a T20 World Cup match. Muzarabani was the first to strike, taking three of the four wickets to fall in the powerplay. Ngarava picked up one wicket in the powerplay and two in the middle overs, before Evans, with a bit of a sling in his action, took the last three wickets.
The Oman openers were quite comfortable against Ngarava but Muzarabani bowled a fuller delivery first up from the other end, which caught Oman captain Jatinder Singh on the back foot. The ball nipped back into his stumps as the Oman procession began.
Ngarava removed Hammad Mirza in the next over with a short ball. Forty-four-year-old Aamir Kaleem then played an awkward upper cut, caught at third man for just five. Muzarabani wasn’t done yet, removing Karan Sonavale with another short ball, caught behind as the batter failed to time the pull shot properly.
Skipper Sikandar Raza’s wicket in the seventh over made it 27 for 5, before Sufyan Mehmood and Vinayak Shukla added 42 runs for the sixth wicket. Shukla struck four boundaries in his 28, while Mehmood made 25 off 39 balls. Ngarava returned to the attack and removed Shukla with his first delivery, before dismissing Jatin Ramanandi later in the same over.
Evans then removed the last three wickets, though the final one was largely to Brian Bennett’s credit. He ran hard for 20 metres to his right from deep midwicket to complete a stunning diving catch. Nadeem Khan, the batter, fell for 20 off the penultimate ball of the Oman innings.
After Zimbabwe got off to a rapid start, Sufyan Mehmood offered some hope for Oman. With his first ball, the medium-pacer had Tadiwanashe Marumani caught at point. A ball later, wicketkeeper Vinayak Shukla took another fine catch off a delivery that rushed through Dion Myers’ inside edge. Shukla appealed loudly, although the umpire did not initially give it out. Replays later came in handy, as Myers was dismissed for a duck.
Veteran Taylor got Zimbabwe back on track with a boundary off Nadeem Khan in the fifth over. Bennett continued to dominate from the other end, hitting Mehmood and Nadeem for two more fours. Taylor then guided Jatin Ramanandi for his second boundary, before the pair took Nadeem to the cleaners in the 11th over.
Taylor struck a superb reverse sweep after Bennett slapped a cut and timed a paddle sweep to start the over. Captain Raza then got them home with a cracking cover drive, sealing victory with 6.3 overs to spare.
Brief scores: Oman 103 in 19.5 overs (Sufyan Mehmood 25, Vinayak Shukla 28, Nadeem Khan 20; Richard Ngarava 3/17, Blessing Muzarabani 3/18, Brad Evans 3/18) lost to Zimbabwe 106/2 in 13.3 overs (Brian Bennett 48, Tadiwanashe Marumani 21, Brendan Taylor 31; Sufyan Mehmood 2/12).
