5 matches unbeaten, team totals above 250 in 5 matches and ‘Valyetan’ leading the way with 3 centuries in 5 matches – Zimbabwe’s run in the One Day Cricket World Cup Qualifier tournament has been one of the biggest revivals the cricket world has seen in recent times. They were once the dark horses of ODI cricket.
But in 2019, the ICC banned Zimbabwe from international matches citing financial irregularities and political interference in the board. Later the team lost sponsors. Despite the change in the ban, the team did not recover from the financial crisis. They were reduced to the situation of having to take the players on local buses and drop them off for the matches. From there they are set to play another ODI World Cup.
∙ To the Qualifier Round
Zimbabwe was forced to play the qualifier round in order to participate in the ODI Cricket World Cup starting in October, as it was not able to make it into the top ten in the ICC ODI rankings. They came out determined to win the qualifiers in their own country at any cost.
Zimbabwe have been drawn in Group B with the West Indies and the Netherlands. But they officially won all 4 matches in the group and entered the Qualifier Super Six round as group champions. Their team totals in the qualifiers were 291, 319, 268, 408 and 332 respectively.
∙ Elder to lead
The veteran of the team, Shaun Williams, who scored 532 runs at an average of 133 runs, including 3 centuries from 5 matches, is the backbone of this second coming of Zimbabwe. Thirty-six-year-old Shaun scored 142, 174, 23, 91, 102* in the tournament. All-rounder Sikandar Raza with 260 runs and 9 wickets is also a solid support for Shaun.
Shaun Williams celebrates after scoring a century
∙ Flowering season of Zimbabwe
The 5 years from 1997 to 2002 are considered to be the golden era of Zimbabwean cricket. Zimbabwe’s strength that day was a number of great players, including the Flower brothers (Andy Flower and Grand Flower), Heath Streak and Henry Olonga. They managed to win matches against every other Test cricket playing nation except Australia during this period.
They shocked the cricketing world by upsetting India and South Africa in the 1999 ODI World Cup. But at the end of 2003, the internal problems that arose in the Zimbabwean board and the political and economic situation in the country slowly pushed the team and the players to collapse.
English summary : Zimbabwe’s Come Back to International Cricket
2023-07-02 07:08:07
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