da brdice： England has qualified for the Super League by beating adevastated Zimbabwe side by just 3 runs at the CCC ground today
Charlie Austin15-Jan-2000England has qualified for the Super League by beating adevastated Zimbabwe side by just 3 runs at the CCC ground today.Despite being outplayed by Zimbabwe, England scrapped through byvirtue of some exceptional bowling at the death, by Tim Murtaghand Nick Warren.Zimbabwe who required just 25 runs in the last five overs withfive wickets remaining panicked under pressure. With only singlesrequired, Travis Friend charged down the wicket to the left armspin of Phillips and was stumped in the 46th over.The new batsmen, Hamilton Henderson, struggled to get away theaccurate block hole bowling. The pressure soon built up on theZimbabweans. Tim Murtagh’s last over, the penultimate of theinnings, decisively swung the match in England’s direction.Costing only 1 run it left the Zimbabweans requiring 7 from thefinal over. They could manage only 3.Thirty minutes before the dramatic finale the game had lookeddead and buried for England. A wonderful 103 run partnershipbetween Nkala (53) and Guy Croxford (63*) rescued the Zimbabweaninnings, which had crumbled to 49-4 in the 20th over.With dark clouds building up around the ground and rain appearinga certainty both sides attention turned towards the variouspossible Duckworth Lewis permutations. When Zimbabwe lost boththeir openers with the score on 29 in the 14th and 15th oversthey dropped behind the required 25 over score. With theirDuckworth Lewis defeat by the West Indies still fresh in theirminds the batsmen tried to increase the scoring. The plan thoughbackfired when two further wickets were lost in the next fiveovers.With the score on 49-4 in the twentieth over England held theadvantage for the first time in the match. However both Nkala andCroxford adopted a more sensible approach, content to pick upthree or four runs per over. With defensive English fieldsallowing them to pick up easy singles and the rain holding off,the pair slowly clawed their way back into the match.With two relatively easy catches dropped the English players hadalmost given up when Tim Phillips ran out Nkala. A fast pick-upand throw from the point boundary left Nkala’s runner two yardsshort of the crease. The wicket injected new life into theplayers and spurred on Murtagh and Warrren to their heroicfinale.Earlier in the day the English batsmen had collapsed to 130-8before Gary Pratt rescued the innings with a gutsy unbeaten 69.Whilst the wicket was damp the batsmen had only themselves toblame for their dismissals. A lack of application and poor shotselection being the primary cause of the mediocre final score ofjust 187-8.Speaking afterwards the England coach, whilst elated that Englandhad qualified, was not happy with the batting.’We have to improve the batting. The performance of the top ordertoday was unacceptable. Although we lost the toss and had to baton a damp wicket the lads didn’t apply themselves.’When asked what he had said to the boys after the match hereplied, ‘ I read the rights to them and told them to get out ofthe comfort zone. We won today by the skin of our teeth.’Despite being disappointed with the batting and not particularlyenamored with aspects of the fielding performance he was full ofpraise for Warren and Murtagh.’That was a phenomenal performance by both of them in anexceptionally high pressure situation. In the last five overs wejust sunk the pressure.’