DHAKA: SC Williams hit fifty coupled with three other forties, propelling Zimbabwe to beat United Arab Emirates (UAE) by four wickets in their ICC Cricket World Cup Pool B match in Nelson on Thursday.
Chasing UAE-set 286-run target, Zimbabwe won the match with 12 balls remaining at Saxton Oval.
The only fifty for Zimbabwean side came from SC Williams who scored 76 runs off 65 balls.
BRM Taylor and Sikandar Raza added 47 runs off 44 balls and 46 runs off 44 balls respectively. CR Ervine contributed 42 runs off 32 balls.
UAE’s Mohammad Tauqir took two wickets while Mohammad Naveed, Amjad Javed, Nasir Aziz and Krishna Chandran bagged one wicket each.
In UAE innings, they scored 285 runs for seven in 50 overs in its first World Cup innings in two decades.
Shaiman Anwar scored 67. Khurram Khan contributed 45 in the top order and Amjad Javed and Mohammad Naveed added 25 and 23 runs respectively
Tendai Chetara (3-42) showed the best bowling figures for Zimbabwe and SC Williams took two wickets.
SC Williams become the man of the match. He said: "I tried not to feel the pressure. We lost wickets at the wrong stages, but the wicket was very good just to keep knocking the ball down the ground. The coach and I have been trying to talk about the sweeps [not playing them so much].”
“I've been trying to punch it down the ground and build innings. Some of their guys bowled really well to us, credit to them for making it difficult for us. Wicket was very good, to play straight. Anything across the line was difficult. Started to lose pace towards the end," he added.
Defeated captain Mohammad Tauqir said: “We played some good cricket but we were expecting a different result. I think this wicket, we saw the last game also, even 300 was not enough. We know our limitations. They batted well, had some good partnerships. Both the left-handers played well, and they won the game.”
He added: “I think overall the bowlers bowled well. One crucial partnership, I think it saw them through the game. If one of them got out it would have been a different result. It was a good learning experience, and I think we would like to put up a positive performance in the upcoming games."
Winning captain Elton Chigumbura said: "Disappointed about the fielding, but our guys played well with the bat. I thought when Craig Ervine went into bat he was positive and brought the run-rate down and it made the job of the guy coming in easier.”
“That's where we went wrong against South Africa. It's good to take the momentum from this game into the game against West Indies. Hopefully we can polish our fielding and have a good game in all departments," added the Winning captain.
BDST: 1243 HRS, FEB 19, 2015
