Zimbabwe beat Scotland by 11 runs

Zimbabwe bowlers produced an impressive performance at the death to eke out a 11-run win over Scotland, registering their second successive win in the qualifying round of the ICC World T20, here on Thursday.

The win takes Zimbabwe a step closer towards qualifying for the tournament proper with the only hurdle left being a spirited Afghanistan side.

Batting first, Zimbabwe scored a decent 147/7 riding on Seam Williams’ 36-ball 53 that had six boundaries.

In reply, Scotland were bowled out for 136 in 19.4 overs as they failed to score a gettable 30 runs off the last three overs with three wickets in hand.

Donald Tiripano (2/20 in 3.4 overs) and Tinashe Panyangara (1/20 in 4 overs) gave only 6 and 5 runs respectively in the 18th and 19th over.

Tiripano, who bowled the final over finished off the match with two balls to spare getting the final wicket of Aladair Evans.

The most successful bowler for Zimbabwe was pacer Wellington Masakadza with figures of grabbing 4 for 28. He is the younger brother of captain Hamilton Masakadza.

Zimbabwe should have won it easily with Scotland down at 42 for five in the eighth over before Richie Berrington (36) and Preston Mommsen (31) added 51 runs for the sixth wicket.

Earlier, Williams came in the fifth over and held the innings together till the 18th over, to notch up his second half century in T20 Internationals.

Zimbabwe: 147/7 in 20 overs (Sean 53, Chigumbura 20, Watt 2/21)

Scotland: 136 in 19.4 overs (Berrington 36, Mommsen 31, Masakadza 4/28, Tiripano 2/20, Panyangara 1/20). 

While in another qualifier played between Hong Kong and Afghanistan, Hong Kong had won the toss and elcted to bat first at Nagpur on Thursday evening. Batting first, they managed to put 116/6 in 20 overs with R Campbell’s  27 off 24 balls and Anshuman Rath’s unbeaten 28 off 31 balls contributions. 

The upbeat Afghans were yet to come to the crease for chasing the target by the time  this report was filed.