Zimbabwe clinch Super Over win to square T20I series in Netherlands
Brendan Taylor and Elton Chigumbura score the big runs before Tendai Chatara does the job with the ball as visitors end tour with their first win
The Report by Liam Brickhill25-Jun-2019
The second T20I in Rotterdam seesawed wildly into a dramatic tie and a Super Over finish in which Zimbabwe scored 18 thanks to Brendan Taylor and Elton Chigumbura, before Tendai Chatara held his nerve to keep Netherlands to just 9 for 1 in response. Chatara’s mettle helped Zimbabwe secure their first win of the tour – and a 1-1 series draw – but it was Roelof van der Merwe who almost stole the show as he snatched a tie out of an almost hopeless situation to set up the Super Over decider.Zimbabwe needed 13 off the final over and Chigumbura took them the brink with consecutive, mighty leg-side hits that levelled the scores. But in a blazing display of bravura, van der Merwe conjured up a dot ball followed by three wickets – a team hat-trick – to keep them from going past. Chigumbura was yorked by a quicker one, Chris Mpofu heaved and was bowled first ball, and with one needed from the last ball, Chatara’s swipe was stopped at short midwicket, and the ball was hurled back for van der Merwe to seal a run out.Van der Merwe, who finished with 4 for 34, had also been crucial in helping his team overcome Taylor’s electric start in the chase. With Netherlands having put up 152 for 8, thanks mainly to Max O’Dowd’s third fifty of the tour, Taylor was shunted up to open the batting in international cricket for the first time in seven years.He launched the pursuit with an array of attacking strokes against pace and spin alike. Fred Klaasen was driven and ramped and van der Merwe swept before Taylor jumped down the crease to play what was possibly the shot of the match – an inside-out checked loft over extra cover.Weathering the early loss of Hamilton Masakadza without skipping a beat, Taylor raised Zimbabwe’s fifty inside the Powerplay with a hopping uppercut off Paul van Meekeren. Zimbabwe’s rapid start had put them ahead of the asking rate, but Brandon Glover struck with the vital wicket, the fall of Taylor, Zimbabwe’s best batsman, sparking a collapse as 69 for 1 became 97 for 6.Taylor edged an attempted ramp to depart for 40, and van Meekeren then struck twice in his next over to see the back of Sean Williams and Craig Ervine. After tapping the ball around for an over or two amid asphyxiating spells from Glover and van der Merwe, the scoreboard pressure got to Sikandar Raza and Peter Moor, who both fell to catches in the deep off van der Merwe’s left-arm spin.The required rate quickly moved above ten, and Zimbabwe required 47 from the last four. Ryan Burl backed away to hack van Meekeren through cover, and then took ten runs off the first two balls of Pieter Seelaar’s comeback over – the 18th – before slapping a high catch out to long-off to leave Zimbabwe needing an unlikely 23 from the last 12 balls.Chigumbura took his time playing himself in in his first match of the tour, but once he found his range he quickly threatened to turn the match around once more. Klaasen was carted for six over midwicket in the penultimate over, setting up the showdown between a strutting Chigumbura and a combative van der Merwe. The left-arm spinner continued to attack the stumps, even after his first two balls had been deposited over the boundary, and Zimbabwe almost fluffed what should have been a simple finish when one run was needed from the last four balls.Zimbabwe made a better fist of their second go at victory in the Super Over, Chigumbura slugging one over the leg-side before Taylor scooped ten runs off two balls on either side of wicketkeeper Scott Edwards to lift their team to a total that Chatara made sure was out of Netherlands’ reach with a nerveless six balls.Their efforts meant a bruising fifty from O’Dowd went in vain. Even as wickets fell at the other end, he helped Netherlands chug through the Powerplay at 55 for 3. A back-foot thump out to wide long-on brought O’Dowd to a 36-ball half-century at the end of the 11th over, but he was one of four Dutch batsmen to fall to spin as Zimbabwe’s slow bowlers took control of the middle overs.Netherlands slipped to 120 for 7 before captain Seelaar chipped in with 29 not out to push them to a total that very nearly proved out of Zimbabwe’s reach.