England win cliffhanger, qualify for Super League

England has qualified for the Super League by beating a devastated Zimbabwe side by just 3 runs at the CCC ground today. Despite being outplayed by Zimbabwe, England scrapped through by virtue of some exceptional bowling at the death, by Tim Murtagh and Nick Warren.

Zimbabwe who required just 25 runs in the last five overs with five wickets remaining panicked under pressure. With only singles required, Travis Friend charged down the wicket to the left arm spin of Phillips and was stumped in the 46th over.

The new batsmen, Hamilton Henderson, struggled to get away the accurate block hole bowling. The pressure soon built up on the Zimbabweans. Tim Murtagh's last over, the penultimate of the innings, decisively swung the match in England's direction. Costing only 1 run it left the Zimbabweans requiring 7 from the final over. They could manage only 3.

Thirty minutes before the dramatic finale the game had looked dead and buried for England. A wonderful 103 run partnership between Nkala (53) and Guy Croxford (63*) rescued the Zimbabwean innings, which had crumbled to 49-4 in the 20th over.

With dark clouds building up around the ground and rain appearing a certainty both sides attention turned towards the various possible Duckworth Lewis permutations. When Zimbabwe lost both their openers with the score on 29 in the 14th and 15th overs they dropped behind the required 25 over score. With their Duckworth Lewis defeat by the West Indies still fresh in their minds the batsmen tried to increase the scoring. The plan though backfired when two further wickets were lost in the next five overs.

With the score on 49-4 in the twentieth over England held the advantage for the first time in the match. However both Nkala and Croxford adopted a more sensible approach, content to pick up three or four runs per over. With defensive English fields allowing them to pick up easy singles and the rain holding off, the pair slowly clawed their way back into the match.

With two relatively easy catches dropped the English players had almost given up when Tim Phillips ran out Nkala. A fast pick-up and throw from the point boundary left Nkala's runner two yards short of the crease. The wicket injected new life into the players and spurred on Murtagh and Warrren to their heroic finale.

Earlier in the day the English batsmen had collapsed to 130-8 before Gary Pratt rescued the innings with a gutsy unbeaten 69. Whilst the wicket was damp the batsmen had only themselves to blame for their dismissals. A lack of application and poor shot selection being the primary cause of the mediocre final score of just 187-8.

Speaking afterwards the England coach, whilst elated that England had qualified, was not happy with the batting.

'We have to improve the batting. The performance of the top order today was unacceptable. Although we lost the toss and had to bat on a damp wicket the lads didn't apply themselves.'

When asked what he had said to the boys after the match he replied, ' I read the rights to them and told them to get out of the comfort zone. We won today by the skin of our teeth.'

Despite being disappointed with the batting and not particularly enamored with aspects of the fielding performance he was full of praise for Warren and Murtagh.

'That was a phenomenal performance by both of them in an exceptionally high pressure situation. In the last five overs we just sunk the pressure.'