World Cup Qualifier 2023: Zimbabwe’s World Cup dream came to an end on Tuesday when Giant Killer Scotland beat Chevron at the Queen’s Sports Club in Bulawayo. Chasing down the target, the qualifier hosts were left 31 runs short of the target of 235 runs despite the best efforts of Zimbabwe batsmen to make a comeback after losing early wickets. Ryan Burl’s 80-run innings went in vain as he could not take his team to victory despite being at the crease for a long time.
The Scots bowlers proved to be too aggressive to handle and were led by Chris Sole, who did major damage to put the hosts on the backfoot. He took on Joylord Gumby as well as Craig Ervin and Sean Williams to dent the Chevron batting. Later Sikandar Raza, Ryan Burl and Wesley Madhevere tried to accelerate the chase and take their side deeper into the game, but regular scalps saw Zimbabwe on the wrong end of another humongous match.
Batting first, the Scottish team managed to score 234 runs without any half-centuries. Lower-middle-order batsman Michael Leask was the team’s top-scorer, while Matthew Cross was close behind with 38 as several batsmen contributed but none scored big.
In Zimbabwe’s batting, none of the top four batsmen could touch the 15-run mark as Sole rattled the top-order with his superb swing. When Raza was dismissed for 6 by Chris Greaves, Scotland must have had a mini heart attack. But the off-spinner dismissed Raza in his very first over to save himself as the Zimbabwean all-rounder scored 34 runs.
Ryan Burl was the brightest star for the hosts, keeping their hopes alive. He and Madhevere added 73 runs for the sixth wicket. Zimbabwe were 37/4 but some contributions kept them alive. However, Michael Leask took perhaps the most wicket of the day as Burl and it was the biggest blow as the last wicket fell on 203 after adding just 6 runs.
Now Scotland and the Netherlands are the only two teams with a chance to qualify for the tournament in India, along with Sri Lanka. Zimbabwe have 6 points in the Super Six and their net run rate is lower than other teams.