Cricket Highlights, 02 Nov: ICC T20 World Cup 2022 – Match 34 (ZIM vs NED)

ZIM vs NED (Match 34) – Highlights

The equation was simple, defeating the Netherlands would keep Zimbabwe’s hopes of the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 semi-finals alive. But Craig Ervine’s team could not do that job properly. Zimbabwe’s farewell from the Super Twelve of the tournaments is almost certain after losing to the Netherlands by 5 wickets.

The Netherlands’ dreams of the last four are already over. On paper, Zimbabwe’s semi-final dreams was still existing. After the 2000 Champions Trophy and the 2003 World Cup, Zimbabwe dreamed of playing the semi-finals once more.

However, in this match, the Dutch reached the port of victory with 12 balls and 5 wickets to chase the target of 118 runs given by Zimbabwe. With this loss, Zimbabwe’s hopes of playing in the last four have faded further.

Zimbabwe started its Super Twelve journey with a lucky one point against South Africa. Ervine’s team then surprised everyone and defeated Pakistan. But in the next match, this country of the African continent lost in a close match against Bangladesh. As a result, they had no choice but to win this match to keep their semi-final hopes alive.

But Zimbabwe could not do that. The Dutch played well from the start coming down to chase the target of only 118 runs. Max O’Dowd, who played the highest innings for the team, made a decent pair of 73 runs with Tom Cooper after losing Stephan Myburgh (8) for the team’s 17 runs in the beginning. At one time it seemed that the Netherlands would win by nine wickets.

However, the Dutch lost 4 wickets in the last 26 runs and fell under some pressure. But Scott Edwards’ team was in no danger in the end as the goal was easy. The Netherlands reached the target of victory with 12 balls and 5 wickets in hand. Max O’Dowd scored 52 runs from 47 balls with 8 fours and 1 six for the team. Apart from that, Tom Cooper scored 32 from 29 balls and Bas de Leede played an unbeaten innings of 12 runs and left the field winning the team.

Richard Ngarava and Blessing Muzarabani took the highest number of 2 wickets each for Zimbabwe. Apart from this, Luke Jongwe took 1 wicket. Zimbabwe’s batsmen must take the blame for the loss against the Netherlands. Because of the 120 balls that were bowled by the Dutch, 65 dots were played by the Zimbabwe team’s batters. Zimbabwe probably lost the match there.

Earlier, Zimbabwe captain Ervine won the toss and decided to bat first in Adelaide’s first match of this year’s World Cup. They could not prove the correctness of the decision. Because no one except Sikandar Raza, who’s been in great form recently, could stay on the wicket for long. Paul van Meekeren started Zimbabwe’s downfall by bowling Wesley Madhevere (1) in the second over of the match.

The team from the African continent was in danger after losing 3 wickets for just 20 runs in six overs of the power play. Then Raza and Sean Williams led the team forward. They both made a partnership of 48 runs for the 4th wicket. But after their pair got broken, Zimbabwe’s innings collapsed like a house of cards. Raza played an innings of 40 runs off 24 balls in the problematic situation of the team. Williams scored 28 runs off 23 balls.

Apart from this, no other batsman for the team could make double-digit scores. Out of the team’s 117 runs, 14 runs came in extras. If these runs had not come, things would have been worse for Zimbabwe. Meanwhile, pacer Paul van Meekeren took the highest number of three wickets for the Netherlands. Apart from this, Bas de Leede, Brandon Glover, and Logan van Beek got two wickets each and Fred Klaassen got one wicket for the winning side.

ZIM vs NED Scoreboard

Zimbabwe – 117/10 (19.2)

Netherlands – 120/5 (18.0)

Result – Netherlands won by 5 wickets

Player of the match – Max O’Dowd

ZIM vs NED Playing XIs