da apostaganha： Consecutive boundaries to captain Heath Streak saw Zimbabwe squeak pastCanterbury’s 236 with three balls to spare, in a tense Jade Stadium finish
Steve Deane19-Dec-2000Consecutive boundaries to captain Heath Streak saw Zimbabwe squeak pastCanterbury’s 236 with three balls to spare, in a tense Jade Stadium finish.Heading into the last over Zimbabwe required seven runs with four wickets inhand. A Guy Whittall single from the first ball of Warren Wisneski’s overgave Streak the strike. Wisneski’s next ball was too wide, allowing Streakto carve it over point to the boundary.Canterbury Captain Gary Stead brought the field in, but Streak gave himselfroom and slashed the ball over the top and down to the cover fence to clinchthe victory for Zimbabwe.Whittall’s 35 not out proved crucial, holding the Zimbabwe innings togetherafter three Chris Harris wickets in the space of five balls allowedCanterbury back into the game.Harris’s second spell of six overs, three wickets for 10 runs, and AaronRedmond’s 10 consecutive tight overs from the Port Hills end, helpedCanterbury push Zimbabwe’s target above one per ball with 10 oversremaining.But in the end Canterbury couldn’t overcome the great start it had giftedZimbabwe with some poor bowling and shoddy fielding.Alistair Campbell and Trevor Madondo put on 109 for the first wicket.Madondo was especially impressive, striking boundaries to all parts of theground. But in a game characterised by poor fielding, dropped catches andmissed chances, none was more important than the goober dropped by GarryStead with Campbell on 36.With Zimbabwe coasting at 82/0 in the seventeenth over, Campbell mistimed adrive off Mark Hastings straight to the Canterbury skipper at cover, but hemuffed the simple eye-height catch and Campbell went on to anchor theZimbabwe innings with 72.When Campbell finally departed he was followed in quick succession by GrantFlower and Gavin Rennie – Stead must have wondered what might have been hadhe not displayed hands like feet.Chris Harris was back to his best with bat as well as ball, dominating thefinal overs of the Canterbury innings as he scored 39 from 35 balls to helpCanterbury post a challenging target.A target that could have been considerably higher had Streak not dismissedChris Cairns just as he looked to have the Zimbabwean attack at his mercy.Cairns had entered the fray with the sleepy Canterbury run-rate in desperateneed of an adrenaline shot. For a time both he and Stead seemed intent onpractising their lap shots off leg-spinner Brian Murphy – the fielders infront of the wicket resembling Liverpool soccer fans – mostly unemployed.Cairns struck some powerful boundaries and a huge one-handed six on his wayto 38. But he couldn’t go on, holing out to Henry Olonga on the long-onfence as he miscued a back-foot drive off Streak.Stead’s patient half-century anchored the Canterbury innings after Hastings,opening the innings, had taken advantage of some overdue luck to score anentertaining 32. Doug Marillier set the tone for the Zimbabwe fieldingeffort by dropping Hastings in the first over.Hamish Barton also benefited as Zimbabwe’s fielding deteriorated from shoddyto abysmal. First, Barton’s score profited by five when a needless throwfrom Henry Olonga deflected off the stumps to the boundary for fouroverthrows. Then Gavin Rennie dropped a sitter of a catch on the mid-wicketboundary when Barton swept a Grant Flower delivery straight to him.Harris’s fine knock made it look as if Zimbabwe might be punished for itssub-standard fielding effort, but Canterbury replied with an equallyincompetent display. A shortage of fingers made it impossible for thosewithout a calculator to figure out which side spurned the most chances.