Eddo Brandes leads Zimbabwe to an upset over England
Against Zimbabwe in 1992, England were done in by a weapon they possessed themselves - fast bowling
The last league game for both England and Zimbabwe. England had already won five but had lost their previous match against New Zealand by seven wickets. Zimbabwe, on the other hand, were winless from the seven games in the tournament.
They were inserted by England on an Albury pitch that kept low and had variable bounce. No semblance of improvement in form and Zimbabwe are routed for 134.
"This is the problem with you amateur sides, you don't know how to just rotate the strike and take singles. You watch the professionals come out of the lunch. They'll just knock the ball into the gaps and run their ones and twos and win this game easily." Condescending words of wisdom from the mouth of Geoffrey Boycott to a distraught Dave Houghton, Zimbabwe's captain, at the lunch break.
After the embarrassing batting display, Houghton just asked his men for one thing. "There are about 8000 people out here who still need some entertainment and the only way we can entertain is to make this game go as long as possible," he said.
Eddo Brandes takes the new ball. Zimbabwe know stifling England will not serve, they need to take all ten wickets, and Brandes doesn't waste any time.
First ball of the innings is full on the stumps. Graham Gooch plays across the line, is beaten by pace and misses to be given lbw. 0 for 1. Erratic throughout the tournament, Brandes had grown in confidence after working with John Traicos in the nets to improve on his accuracy
Ian Botham and Allan Lamb take England forward with a stand of 32. Brandes breaks that partnership too and follows that wicket with two more in quick succession in the same spell. His fourth wicket is that of his best friend Grame Hick, also beaten by pace by a searing yorker on the off stump, for a duck. 43 for 5. Maybe Hick could not get Brandes' warning from the previous evening out of his head: "Good luck tomorrow, but I think you'll be my bunny."
Houghton bowled Brandes through and he responded without complaint even if it meant bending his back under the uncompromising sun. "David was outstanding as captain that day," recalls Traicos, one of the weather-beaten veterans. His men responded and the runs were drying up even as Neil Fairbrother and Alec Stewart forged a partnership. Zimbabwe knew that it was just a matter of a wicket. Ali Shah got Stewart, breaking the 52-run stand, and Iain Butchart got two more. England needed 23 off the last three overs, which became ten off the last, with the final pair of Gladstone Small and Phil Tuffnell at the crease. They fell short by nine runs as they ran out of wickets.
Four maidens in ten overs and Brandes finished with 4 for 21, his best figures until then, which he surpassed with a hat-trick five years later against the same opponents. Zimbabwe earned their first points of the competition and registered their first win after 18 defeats since beating Australia on their World Cup debut in 1983.