Zimbabwe and Scotland remain unbeaten in the World Cup qualifying tournament after a dramatic tied match.
Blessing Muzarabani took the final wicket of former Natal U19 player Brad Wheal with the fourth ball of the final over with the scores locked at 210.
Earlier, it had looked so promising for Scotland, when they were sitting at 146-4 in the 35th over, after Richie Berrington (47 off 76), formerly of Pretoria, and George Munsey (29) had pulled the Scots up from 69-4 with a stand of 77. Berrington then became one of Graeme Cremer’s three victims and the slide began.
Zimbabwe may have taken their foot off the pedal, but their performance will ring alarm bells. Seamer Safyaan Sharif and off-break spinner Michael Leask took nine wickets between them as the tournament hosts struggled to 210. Craig Ervine was the leading batsman with 57, with support from Brendan Taylor (44) and Solomon Mire (35).
The West Indies stamped their authority on the Netherlands immediately to set up a 54-run win in a rain-shortened match.
Chris Gayle (46 off 43) and Evin Lewis (83) put on 85 in 8.3 overs for the first wicket to set the tone. The rampage was then bolstered by Marvin Samuels, who scored an unbeaten 73 off 85, with just five fours, while Rovman Powell, who scored his maiden century last time out, continued in fine form with a quickfire 52 off 38.
Faced with a run rate of nearly 6.5, the Dutchmen had to come out firing, but three run-outs did not help their cause. Only two batsmen were able to put up a fight: Wesley Barresi, the Johannesburg-born former Easterns player scored 64 and Ryan ten Doeschate, who played 33 ODIs for the Proteas, was unbeaten on 67 when the rain came down.
Ireland piled up 313-6 to beat the United Arab Emirates by 226 runs on a Duckworth-Lewis calculation. Nevertheless, with the Netherlands having started badly, the UAE secured the final Super Six spot.
In a low-end scrap, Nepal beat Hong Kong by five wickets, reaching their target of 153 with almost 10 overs to spare.
The top six are: West Indies (8 points), Zimbabwe (7), Scotland (7), Ireland (6), UAE (4) and Afghanistan (2).
Zimbabwe vs Scotland scorecard
West Indies vs Netherlands scorecard
Photo: Lee Warren/Gallo Images
