365WCX_1999MAY25

************** CRICINFO365 WORLD CUP EXTRA **************

Tuesday, May 25, 1999. World Cup Edition No. 12

IN THIS EDITION:

* Match Report: England v Zimbabwe * Quotes * Magic Moment * Full scorecards * Points table * Tomorrow's fixture

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REPORT: ENGLAND v ZIMBABWE, at Trent Bridge

By John Ward

England beat Zimbabwe by seven wickets to record their third victory of the tournament and secure vital qualification points towards the Super Six stage. Zimbabwe could scarcely be accused of not trying, but they played with a lack of intelligence and self-belief and in the end, like a team with a broken spirit. Barring what would be little short of a miracle against South Africa at Chelmsford on Saturday, they will return home next week, a sadder and hopefully wiser team

Tuesday morning in Nottingham dawned bright and sunny, but by the start of the match it had already begun to cloud over. The pitch was slightly damp and greenish, meaning that the toss was likely to be important and that the seam bowlers could expect a fair degree of help. As it was, England won the toss and naturally had no hesitation in putting Zimbabwe in to bat.

The bowlers did not have much success at first, but after four or five overs the ball began to swing and bounce, and they used it well. Gough rarely achieved much movement, but Fraser moved the ball in sharply at times and Mullally, the best of the England bowlers and the eventual Man of the Match, swung it either way.

It was Gough who took the first wicket, getting a ball to straighten on Johnson and flick his pad as it bowled him through the gate. Paul Strang had done a good job as a pinch hitter earlier in the tournament, but this was not to be his day, and he struggled for 17 balls without scoring, before finally snicking Mullally straight to second slip.

Mullally was soon to strike again, moving a ball away from Goodwin and the ball flew off the edge for Thorpe to take a low catch at first slip. With fine bowling on this lively pitch, Stewart maintained a field setting which included three slips even after the 15-over restrictions had expired, and Mullally also brought Hollioake up as a short leg for Andy Flower, who nevertheless got off the mark immediately with a nonchalant dab on the off side. Mullally's next ball moved late and beat Grant comprehensively.

The pressure relaxed as the three front-line pacemen were rested and the next three - Ealham, Flintoff and Hollioake - were much less effective. The Flower brothers appeared to be settling down into a major partnership when disaster struck. Andy called for a quick single from the non-striker's end, only to be run out by a brilliant direct hit from Hussain, running in from point.

Campbell soon announced his presence by stroking Flintoff effortlessly to the cover boundary. But then Grant Flower undid what had been a fine job for his team by flashing at Ealham and edging a high catch to first slip and it seemed as if Zimbabwe were losing ground just as the pressure was starting to come off.

Campbell and Whittall concentrated on picking off anything off line and keeping the score moving in ones and twos and there were hopes that at last they were succeeding in building a partnership. Stewart brought back Gough in an attempt to finish the game, but Campbell seemed to decide the best policy was to hit him out of the attack and played some injudicious strokes before finally edging Fraser and presenting the keeper with an easy catch.

Mullally kept the runs down by bowling lifting balls just wide of the off stump and the later Zimbabwean batsmen found no answer. The latter part of the innings contained batting of the sort one would scarcely expect to see in a team experienced in one-day cricket; in fact, the Kenyans would almost certainly have done better. Working the ball away for singles seemed to be unheard of, with the batsmen being unduly intent on keeping their wickets intact or trying to attack the bowling without real discrimination. It seemed quite apparent that at the death Zimbabwe had started to 'choke'.

Carlisle was perhaps the main culprit, stuck on strike much of the time and seemingly incapable of giving the strike to Whittall. When Whittall did finally face, he suffered what may well have been an unlucky lbw decision and this suddenly seemed to bring Carlisle to his senses, with a fine drive off Hollioake to the extra cover boundary, which brought up the 150.

A brilliant throw from mid-on nearly ran out Streak backing up, but he threw himself back into his crease just in time. Carlisle then hit a huge skyer over mid-on, and Fraser running round made good ground and took a fine catch over his head. Olonga joined Streak for the final overs and the pair did what they could, but Zimbabwe's total hardly looked enough and the spark seemed to be have disappeared from their game.

When England replied, Johnson and Streak began with some testing deliveries, and Streak may well have been unlucky in an lbw appeal against Stewart which was turned down. England had to fight for a while, but the pitch was no longer giving Zimbabwe any help and the cloud cover dissipated, leaving the bowlers with little natural assistance.

Finally Zimbabwe struck, as Stewart turned Johnson uppishly towards midwicket, where Goodwin dived forward to take a good low catch. He had made 12, and England were 21 for one. Then Streak had a nightmare over, which gave away a no-ball and several wides, and finished with Hussain hammering a short ball over midwicket to the boundary.

Pommie Mbangwa replaced Streak and began with a wide and a second ball that must also have given the umpire thought. But his third ball did the trick, pitched well up and swinging away, and Hick followed it, to nudge a catch to the keeper. Before the end of the over he had Hussain groping uncertainly forward and almost squirting a catch on the off side.

Graham Thorpe joined Hussain and immediately England began looking more comfortable with the pair batting well and they began to develop a good partnership. However with the Zimbabwe attack conceding a succession of wides and no-balls it seemed that they had left their brains in the pavilion.

Runs came at an increasing rate and England appeared to be galloping towards victory and the Zimbabwean body language seemed to suggest that some of their players had lost all hope, a sorry state for a team that began the tournament confident of reaching the Super Six, as indeed they should have - and then choking on the verge of it.

England were progressing steadily when Thorpe started to cut loose at the expense of Streak, who for such a fine bowler has had a disastrous tournament, completely failing to come to terms with the white ball. In a series of powerful drives and pulls, Thorpe overtook Hussain to reach a fine fifty, which came off only 60 balls. Hussain was not long in following, as Zimbabwe seemed able now to do little more than go through the motions.

Hussain did give one chance on 54, and Johnson diving from mid-off failed to hold what would have been a brilliant one-handed catch. However Thorpe did not enjoy the opportunity of carrying his team to victory. Slashing at Mbangwa, he was out for 62 to a sharp catch at slip by Campbell, and England were 159 for three. Fairbrother and Hussain were restricted by some good bowling from Mbangwa and Strang at the end, but by then the result was academic and Hussain drove Strang through extra cover for the winning run, which was just completed before the traditional invasion by the hordes of barbarism.

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QUOTES:

"We let our cricket do the talking." Alec Stewart's guarded response to Zimbabwe's pre-game hype.

"I just try to put it in the right place and not concede too many wides." Alan Mullally describes his attitude bowling with the white ball after winning the man of the match award.

"The toss was of paramount importance." Alistair Campbell tries to find reasons to be cheerful.

"I've never played in a game where we've lost to England and I'm looking on this match as our banker." Zimbabwe coach Dave Houghton indulges in an optimistic pre-game prediction.

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MAGIC MOMENT

Although there were a few candidates in the England v Zimbabwe game, today's magic moment was undoubtedly watching Graham Thorpe mete out the treatment to Heath Streak as he drove and pulled the Zimbabwean pace man to distraction, outscored his senior partner Nasser Hussain and raced to his first fifty of the tournament helping England cruise home to victory at a canter.

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SCORECARD

ODI # 1461 ICC World Cup, 1999, 19th Match England v Zimbabwe, Group A Trent Bridge, Nottingham 25 May 1999 (50-over match)

Result: England won by 7 wickets Points: England 2, Zimbabwe 0

Toss: England Umpires: SA Bucknor (WI) and DB Hair (Aus) TV Umpire: RE Koertzen (SA) Match Referee: Talat Ali (Pak) Man of the Match: AD Mullally

Zimbabwe innings (50 overs maximum) R B 4 6 NC Johnson b Gough 6 12 0 0 GW Flower c Thorpe b Ealham 35 90 4 0 PA Strang c Hick b Mullally 0 17 0 0 MW Goodwin c Thorpe b Mullally 4 18 0 0 +A Flower run out (Hussain) 10 24 0 0 *ADR Campbell c Stewart b Fraser 24 35 2 0 GJ Whittall lbw b Ealham 28 51 3 0 SV Carlisle c Fraser b Gough 14 38 2 0 HH Streak not out 11 13 1 0 HK Olonga not out 1 3 0 0 Extras (lb 16, w 17, nb 1) 34 Total (8 wickets, 50 overs) 167

DNB: M Mbangwa.

FoW: 1-21 (Johnson, 6.1 ov), 2-29 (Strang, 11.5 ov), 3-47 (Goodwin, 17.3 ov), 4-79 (A Flower, 26.2 ov), 5-86 (GW Flower, 28.1 ov), 6-124 (Campbell, 38.1 ov), 7-141 (GJ Whittall, 44.3 ov), 8-159 (Carlisle, 48.5 ov).

Bowling O M R W Gough 10 2 24 2 (3w) Fraser 10 0 27 1 (1nb, 2w) Mullally 10 4 16 2 (4w) Ealham 10 1 35 2 (1w) Flintoff 3 0 14 0 (5w) Hollioake 7 0 35 0 (2w)

England innings (target: 168 runs from 50 overs) R B 4 6 N Hussain not out 57 93 7 0 *+AJ Stewart c Goodwin b Johnson 12 31 1 0 GA Hick c A Flower b Mbangwa 4 11 0 0 GP Thorpe c Campbell b Mbangwa 62 80 7 0 NH Fairbrother not out 7 23 0 0 Extras (lb 3, w 16, nb 7) 26 Total (3 wickets, 38.3 overs) 168

DNB: A Flintoff, AJ Hollioake, MA Ealham, D Gough, ARC Fraser, AD Mullally.

FoW: 1-21 (Stewart, 8.3 ov), 2-36 (Hick, 11.2 ov), 3-159 (Thorpe, 33.3 ov).

Bowling O M R W Johnson 7 2 20 1 (3nb) Streak 8 0 37 0 (8w) Mbangwa 7 1 28 2 (2w) GJ Whittall 4 0 23 0 (2w) Olonga 3 0 27 0 (4nb, 4w) Strang 9.3 1 30 0

4th (reserve) umpire: NT Plews GP Thorpe 50 off 59 balls, 6x4 0x6 GA Hick 50 off 80 balls, 6x4 0x6

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POINTS TABLE

Group A

Played Won LostNRTied Points Net RR For Against South Africa 3 3 - - - 6 +1.495 678/147.2 466/150 England 4 3 1 - - 6 -0.083 682/174.2 799/200 Zimbabwe 4 2 2 - - 4 -0.241 847/191 844/180.3 India 3 1 2 - - 2 +0.662 831/146 741/147.2 Sri Lanka 3 1 2 - - 2 -0.609 512/146 603/146.5 Kenya 3 - 3 - - 0 -1.430 667/150 764/130

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WORLD CUP - WEDNESDAY'S FIXTURES:

Group A

Sri Lanka v India South Africa v Kenya

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Joint Editors and Senior Contributors: Rick Eyre, Alex Balfour and John Polack - editor@cricinfo.com Also contributed to today's edition: John Ward

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