Zimbabwe close in on WC place

HARARE: Zimbabwe captain Graeme Cremer reveled in the “game of (his) career” after his team’s 107-run victory over Ireland in their World Cup qualifying clash in Harare on Thursday.

Scrapping to 211 for 9, Zimbabwe then bowled Ireland out for 104, taking virtually every chance that came their way.Cremer’s side next take on two-time World Cup winners West Indies on Monday, knowing that one more win could be enough to clinch one of the last two spots for next year’s tournament in England and Wales.

“It was the performance of my career in the field,” said Cremer. “Sometimes we let it slip out there in the field, but today we just knocked the nail in the coffin. “We know we can defend low totals. That’s what we said when we came out (for Ireland’s innings). And our bowlers were sensational today.”

Defending a total that Cremer admitted was “below par”, Zimbabwe desperately needed early wickets.Opening the bowling with left-arm spinner Tendai Chisoro, they quickly reduced Ireland to 18 for three inside the Powerplay. Chisoro finished with three for 22, while Cremer claimed figures of three for 18 with his leg-spin.

In all, Zimbabwe’s spinners bowled 25.2 overs out of the 34.2 that Ireland faced, taking eight wickets.“It was (an) extremely gettable target,” admitted Ireland captain William Porterfield.“The wicket was tacky in the morning, and then it dried out. We knew we were going to face 35 plus overs of spin. Nothing was any surprise, we just didn’t play well enough. And when we lost some early wickets, they never let us back in the game.” That Zimbabwe got to 211 at all was mostly due to the hard work of middle-order allrounder Sikandar Raza, who came to the wicket with Zimbabwe floundering at 87 for five and shepherded the second half of their innings with an unbeaten 69.

Brief scores: Zimbabwe 211/9 in 50 overs (Sikandar Raza 69*, Brendan Taylor 25; Tim Murtagh 3-36, Andy McBrine 2-42) beat Ireland 104 in 34.2 overs (Paul Stirling 41, Gary Wilson 15; Graeme Cremer 3-18, Tendai Chisoro 3-22) by 107 runs.