da 888casino： Zimbabwe continued their fightback on a freezing day in Harare underincreasingly overcast skies with a steady Antarctic wind blowing
John Ward30-Jul-2001Zimbabwe continued their fightback on a freezing day in Harare underincreasingly overcast skies with a steady Antarctic wind blowing. Theyrecorded their highest ever Test Match total before declaring to set WestIndies 348 to win.Coincidentally, this is exactly the highest fourth-innings score West Indies have ever made to win a Test, which they did by five wickets against New Zealand in 1968/69. When bad light ended play early, West Indies had scored 42 for one, leaving the prospect of an interesting finish on the final day, weather permitting.Zimbabwe began the day 108 runs ahead of West Indies in their second inningswith six wickets in hand. Hamilton Masakadza added only four runs to hisovernight 115 in almost half an hour before driving a tame catch to shortextra cover off Neil McGarrell. His innings of 119 is the highest by anyplayer under the age of 18 in Test cricket.Zimbabwe took a while to adopt the positive approach that had served them sowell the previous day, but Grant Flower and Heath Streak were just beginningto take control when Flower (14) cut Reon King, who had bowled raggedly, lowto backward point where Shivnarine Chanderpaul took a fine diving catch.Streak played a responsible innings, hitting the loose ball well anddepositing McGarrell over mid-wicket for a six. With Andy Blignaut generallyrestraining himself so as to support Streak, until he hammered threeboundaries off Marlon Black in the last over before the interval, Zimbabwepassed 400.A classical cover-driven boundary off Colin Stuart took Streak to his fiftysoon after lunch. Blignaut passed his previous Test highest of 35 and thenhit a six over long-on to reach his fifty off 79 balls. He then tried areverse sweep, to be caught by the ‘keeper apparently off the glove, but wasgiven not out by umpire Kevan Barbour.Blignaut overtook the more responsible Streak, but he too generally showedgood shot selection. Just before the 500 came up, the two all-roundersbroke the previous seventh-wicket record of 131 by Grant Flower and PaulStrang in Pakistan in 1996/97. The pitch was still good and the West Indianbowlers did not show the skill necessary to break through against qualitybatting.Finally Blignaut, perhaps unnerved by his approaching century, swung wildlyacross the line at Stuart, to be bowled for 92 off 118 balls, after apartnership of 154 with his captain. Zimbabwe were then 521 for seven.Streak had a narrow escape when a mistimed drive just cleared mid-off, whileTatenda Taibu hit 10 off nine balls before being yorked by Stuart.Soon after tea Zimbabwe passed their previous highest Test total of 544 forfour declared, against Pakistan on this ground in their first-ever Testmatch victory in 1994/95. Then, when Bryan Strang lobbed a catch tomid-wicket off McGarrell for 11, Streak declared at 563 for nine, with hispersonal score on 79. West Indies were left to make 348 to win, a scenariothey could never have envisaged two days earlier. It was not an impossibletask on a good pitch, but their morale in the field appeared low and theywill need to lift themselves considerably now to save the match.The injured Daren Ganga bravely came out to open the West Indian innings andguided the first ball past gully for four. The light, though, continued todeteriorate under the heavily overcast sky, causing concern to Zimbabwe.Chris Gayle showed the umpires he was having no problems with visibility, ashe hit two superb successive fours off Blignaut, a drive through extra coverand a cut. Ganga added only a single to have five when he tried to turn Streakto leg and skied a catch.Ramnaresh Sarwan came in for Chanderpaul, who hurt a hand in the field. TheZimbabwe bowling was steady rather than threatening. With nine overs stillto be bowled, bad light brought an early end to play, with West Indies 42for one (Gayle 17, Sarwan 11).