By Tapiwa Svondo
It was all smiles and cheers for the Zimbabwe national cricket team, the Chevrons as they clinched the One Day International series 2-1 against Holland at Harare sports club.
Netherlands won the toss and chose to bat first, despite steady contributions from their top-order batters, the Dutch innings was stifled by regular fall of wickets.
Zimbabwe’s part-time spinners, Sean Williams (3/41) and Sikandar Raza (2/55), did the maximum damage as Netherlands could only reach 231/9 at the end of their allotted overs.
In response a partnership of 96 runs from Wessly Madhevere and Craig Ervine set the pace for victory.
Two quick wickets from Shariz Ahmad gave the Dutch some hope unfortunately the partnership of Gary Ballance and Sean Williams dashed any hope of clinching the series by the visitors.
Sikandar Raza and Gary Ballance put the icing on the cake as the Chevrons clinched the series by 7 wickets after posting 235/3.
Chevrons captain Craig Ervine was excitex with the team’s performance throughout the series.
“Certainly delighted pulled the game back nicely after 10 overs with the spin and restricted to a total that was chaseable. Nice to start well in the chase, that partnership between me and Wes was key to settle the nerves and take the pressure off the middle-order. Nice to see Wessly back in the wickets, happy to see some guys back in the runs. Everyone is putting their hand up.
“We still have some work to do, our fielding has been under par in this series. We now have a break where hopefully we can iron out a few of those issues before the World Cup qualifiers” said Ervine
Sean Williams was named player of the match and player of the series with an excellent performance from him.
“It’s a nice feeling as a team, and nice to do what I’m supposed to be doing in this team. I think we need just one guy to bowl well. Our spinners bowled well to restrict them to 230, and then it was one big partnership we needed. Came down with a flu and had a finger injury, but blessed to score some runs.
“Our main goal now is to play well in those World Qualifiers and book that ticket for the World Cup,” said Williams
Scott Edwards the Netherlands captain gave credit to the Zimbabwean team saying they deserved the win.
“Maybe not enough runs. We thought we had enough but they batted well, credit to them. (On 2nd ODI) It was obviously one of those games, but saying that we fought back in the first game and won a game we shouldn’t have. We’ve performed pretty well in all three disciplines. Straight into the South Africa series, hopefully we can seal a game or two over there,” said Edwards
