Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. ZIMBABWE top order batsman Brendan Taylor scored his maiden T20 hundred, guiding Zimbabwe to an unassailable 259/5 and winning the ICC Men’s T20 Africa Qualifier by 170 runs at Harare Sports Club yesterday.
The hosts are through to the semis of the competition with one match to spare.
So special was the hundred that the former Zimbabwe skipper had a brief moment of meditation before he puffed out his chest and clinched a fist in the air, acknowledging his teammates at the pavilion and the rest of the ground including the centurion stand that normally houses his father.
Taylor scored 123 from 54 balls, laced with 16 boundaries and five maximums, before limping back to the pavilion retired hurt.
“Overwhelmed and grateful to be in this environment. To be back in the Zimbabwe set-up surrounded by wonderful people all driving each other forward, so something I wasn’t expecting today, but I was hoping for a contribution and I seem to have gone a bit further than that,” Taylor said after the match.
“So it’s just a great bunch of guys, the technical staff, we’re all gelling and I think the timing of our performances are starting to bode well, but we keep our feet on the ground and treat every day, every game as a final.
“We speak about respecting all opposition, but fearing no opposition at the same time, so I think that’s a great way to go about it.”
He added: “T20 can be unpredictable, we’re seeing some upsets in the other groups as well so we don’t want to take anyone lightly.
“We do respect everyone involved in this tournament and we focus on our skills, hopefully that’ll be good enough.”
Opener Brian Bennett scored his second successive half-century, 65 (33), featuring in a 112-run stand for the second wicket.
His half-century included seven boundaries and four sixes.
He smashed 28 runs off the sixth over bowled by Piet Katlo, hitting a boundary and four sixes, reaching his half-century in 19 balls.
Chevrons captain Sikandar Raza joined in the party, dishing out successive two sixes and a boundary in an over.
However, he attempted one too many and was caught at the long-off boundary going for another big hit.
Tashinga Musekiwa (11* off 4 balls) and Tony Munyonga (9* off 5 balls) picked up the pieces at the back end, getting Zimbabwe to 259/5 in their 20 overs.
Richard Ngarava grabbed Zimbabwe’s first wicket on the first ball of Botswana’s innings, clean-bowling their opener, Karabo Modise.
Blessing Muzarabani took the second wicket in the next over, having Karabo Motlhanka caught at point by Munyonga.
Botswana were already reeling on 8/2 after 1.4 overs.
Tharindu Perera (31*) and Mouroux Kassleman (26) provided some resistance, but Botswana were far short of mounting any meaningful challenge when they exhausted their overs on 89/8.
Ryan Burl and Ngarava picked two wickets each, while Raza, Tinotenda Maposa and Bradley Evans joined Muzarabani with one wicket each.
This was after Botswana elected to field after winning the toss, which proved futile in hindsight.
Zimbabwe will be back on the field tomorrow morning against Tanzania.
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