Zimbabwe have notched up one of their most remarkable limited-over victories at the Sydney Cricket Ground tonight, defending a total of 138 to defeat the West Indies by 47 runs

Rick Eyre22-Jan-2001Zimbabwe have notched up one of their most remarkable limited-over victories at the Sydney Cricket Ground tonight, defending a total of 138 to defeat the West Indies by 47 runs.The Windies, mortally wounded at 8/31, were finally dismissed after 31.5 overs for a total of 91. The pace trio of Heath Streak (4/8 from eight overs), Bryan Strang (3/15 from eight) and Mluleki Nkala (3/12) did all the damage, with Zimbabwean captain Streak taking the man-of-the-match award following his innings of 45 earlier in the day.It was a game played on a bouncy SCG pitch in hot conditions in which the pace bowlers dominated, vindicating WI captain Jimmy Adams’ surprise decision to field first after winning the toss… until abysmal batting by the West Indian top order turned the game on its head.Cameron Cuffy, the thirty year-old St Vincentian playing his first series in West Indian colours for four years, bowled unchanged through his ten-over spell, removing Campbell, Whittall, and the Brothers Flower for career-best figures of 4/24. Stuart Carlisle’s patient 29 came to an end when he middled a lofted square cut, only to find Ricardo Powell in the deep, giving Laurie Williams (3/24 from ten overs) his first victim of the day. When Viljoen edged McLean to wicketkeeper Ridley Jacobs, Zimbabwe were 6/66.Rennie and Nkala fell in the space of the same Williams over and it was 8/88. Thoughts of an easy West Indian victory and an early night were beckoning. However captain Streak, whose value as an all-rounder is on the rise, dominated the scoring as Adams used his slow bowlers on a pitch unresponsive to spin.Streak had reached 45 when he holed out to twelfth man Sylvester Joseph at long on, bringing the Zimbabwe innings to a close at 138 after 47.2 overs. The last two wickets added 50 runs.When Jacobs took the catch to remove Bryan Strang, it was his fifth dismissal of the innings, making him the first wicketkeeper to claim five dismissals in an ODI innings on four occasions.It looked a simple task for a West Indian batting lineup which hadn’t displayed its Test-match fragility in the one-day series… until now. And at no time during the 0-5 Test debacle against Australia had they slumped to 31 runs for 8. Tonight, that is exactly what happened.First it was Ridley Jacobs (6), lbw to a ball from Streak which struck him plumb in front. Then it was Sherwin Campbell, who was off the field for the latter part of the Zimbabwe innings with an injured shoulder, edging to namesake Alistair at slip off Strang without scoring, the score 2/22.Wavell Hinds (8) edged Streak to a juggling Alistair Campbell with no addition to the score. Then Lara was struck on the back leg in front of leg stump… there was little doubt about the decision. Lara out for a duck, West Indies 4/22.Marlon Samuels (1) cut Strang straight to a waiting Carlisle at slip, 5/24. And that wasn’t the end of it…In Streak’s next over, Powell (0) was given lbw, and from the very next delivery, Laurie Williams edged to first slip, with Carlisle diving across from second slip to take the catch. Nagamootoo, coming to the crease at 7/25, survived the hat-trick.When was the last time a team was 7/29 at the end of the 15-over field restriction? And it was soon 8/31. Nagamootoo (3) attempted to hit Mluleki Nkala to the third man boundary, but picked out Dirk Viljoen, who recovered after finding himself out of position to take an excellent diving catch.With the world record for the lowest ODI total of all-time (43, Pakistan v WI at Cape Town, 1993) in sight, Jimmy Adams and Nixon McLean were fortunate to survive as a number of uppish shots fell just of reach of the Zimbabwean fielders. Nonetheless, the two batsmen realised that attack was now the only serious option, and McLean took up the challenge by smashing four consecutive boundaries off the bowling of Guy Whittall. At least this took WI out of the world record danger zone and into the fifties.Zimbabwe’s slower change bowlers Whittall and Murphy proved ineffective as Adams and McLean brought the Windies back into the game. Streak finally brought Nkala back into the attack at the start of the 32nd over, and had immediate success. Nkala took a superb diving catch off his own bowling to remove Adams (22), and then had Cameron Cuffy caught at slip by Carlisle two balls later without further addition to the score. The West Indies were gone for 91, a figure hauntingly similar to the 93 they infamously assembled against Kenya in the 1996 World Cup.Nixon McLean (40* from 32 balls) remained his team’s top scorer, his ninth-wicket partnership with Adams being worth 60 runs. The West Indies total was four more than their all-time lowest of 87, made on the same ground eight years ago.One odd sidelight of this game was the first appearance of penalty runs in a one-day international since the introduction of the new Laws of Cricket last October. Ridley Jacobs, diving to his left attempting a bat-pad catch off Bryan Murphy, lost his cap, which fell on top of the ball on the ground. Umpire Peter Parker gave the tap on his left shoulder with the palm of his right hand to indicate five penalty runs awarded under Law 41.2, which covers unlawfully fielding the ball in a wilful manner. The only dispute can be whether the cap stopped the ball as a result of a wilful act by Jacobs.. otherwise no runs should have been scored.Zimbabwe and the West Indies now have two points each having taking a win from each other. The Windies have, however, played five matches of their eight, Zimbabwe only three. Australia have a 100 per cent record from four matches, and must be having a quiet chuckle at the standard of play in what was, in fairness, an eventful but very scrappy game of one-day cricket. A total of 8474 people attended the SCG for a game in which the home side was not taking part.These two teams meet again in the next match of the Carlton Series at the Adelaide Oval on Thursday night.