West indies crush Zimbabwe

Sport
ZIMBABWE’S Under-19 team struggled against the pace from their West Indies counterparts as they crashed to a 167-run loss in their second ICC Under-19 World Cup match

ZIMBABWE’S Under-19 team struggled against the pace from their West Indies counterparts as they crashed to a 167-run loss in their second ICC Under-19 World Cup match at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi yesterday.

SPORTS REPORTER

After setting a challenging score of 275, the West Indies pace bowlers claimed eight of the 10 Zimbabwean wickets to fall as they bowled the African side for a paltry 108 in 39, 4 overs.

Tagenarine Chanderpaul, the son of West Indies star Shivnarine Chanderpaul had earlier top scored with an unbeaten 84 as West Indies reached 275 for six in their allotted 50 overs after winning the toss and electing to bat first.

Opening batsman Jonathan Drake contributed 50 runs off just 54 deliveries as the Windies stamped their authority on the match right from the start.

Shimron Hetmyer was also aggressive against the Zimbabwe spinners before he was dismissed just a single short of his half century from a mere 47 deliveries.

Needing a solid performance from their batsmen, Zimbabwe struggled to cope with the West Indies seamers right from the start as they lost their first seven wickets for just 43 runs inside 18 overs.

Batting at number eight, Kieran Geyle top scored for Zimbabwe with an unbeaten 45 as he was left stranded at the non-strikers end. Only two other batsmen reached double figures for Zimbabwe Deven Bell (14) and Charles Kunje (10).

Left-arm fast-medium Preston McSween returned impressive bowling figures of three wickets for 14 runs from seven overs as he spearheaded a lethal Windies pace-bowling unit.

Right arm medium seamer Ray Jordan took three wickets for 32 runs while fellow seamer Jerome Jones claimed two wickets.

Yesterday’s loss left Zimbabwe in third position behind South Africa and West Indies in Group C with two points.

Zimbabwe will need to beat South Africa in their next group match tomorrow and hope Canada beat West Indies in the other match to qualify for the Super League quarter-finals.