The Sunday Mail
(West Indies 257-4 (Stuart 76*,Simmons 89) beat Zimbabwe 187 (Roche 65) by 70 runs.)
THE Zimbabwe cricket Under 19 team lost this three- match Youth One Day international series 2-1 after a 70-run defeat to the West Indies at Harare Sports Club yesterday.
After being sent in to bat West Indies made a solid start to their innings, posting 254, and were smart in their defence too.
Captain Liam Roche top scored in the chase with 65, his second fifty of the series, but no one really fired for the hosts who at some point lost wickets in three run outs in a row.
That crushed the hosts’ hopes as they struggled to construct big partnerships like the visitors had done earlier.
West Indies’ opening stand between Bhaskar Yadram (65) and Keagan Simmons (89) yielded 113 runs in 24 overs.
It was followed by another big partnership of 111 between Simmons and captain Emmanuel Stuart who hit an unbeaten 89.
Batting conditions were so good that the West Indies would feel they were at least 30 runs short.
Medium pacer Jonathan Connolly’s 2/33 (8) incisive death bowling excellently slowed the West Indies’ scoring rate.
But West Indies were always going to be difficult to beat with their bowling arsenal.
And they had a good start in their defense led by speedster Darren Nedd who finished with four wickets for 33 runs.
The 18- year old from Grenada removed the opening batsman Gregory Dollar, lbw, with a fast full delivery to leave Zimbabwe reeling at 20-1.
It was soon 28-2 when Ryan Murray was bowled by a another Nedd beauty.
Milton Shumba was next to fall leaving the score at 45-3 and Alistair Frost didn’t stay long as Zimbabwe wobbled at 52-4.
The next three wickets were run outs, first Dion Myers for the second time in the series, Taun Harrison succumbed in the same manner before Wesley Madhevere followed the same script.
That killed the chase for Zimbabwe whose tail didn’t last.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe will have little rest time as they will take on Kenya in four one day games in Kwekwe between August 3-7.
