The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Sri Lanka downs Zimbabwe

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Wednesday, Sep 15, 2004

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Sport - Cricket

Sri Lanka downs Zimbabwe

LONDON, SEPT. 14. Sri Lanka had to dig deep to down Zimbabwe in the Champions Trophy on Tuesday. Chasing a target of 192, Sri Lanka lost six wickets in its pursuit as it reached the mark in 43.5 overs.

Skipper Marvan Atapattu top-scored with 43 runs while the middle order batsmen gave him able support. Elton Chigumbura, after hitting 57 for Zimbabwe, shone with the ball too, taking three wickets.

Earlier, Chigumbura managed to lend respectability to Zimbabwe's score. Chigumbura, aged 18, and 19-year-old Prosper Utseya put on 64 for the eighth wicket at the Oval as Zimbabwe wound up giving the Sri Lankans a tougher than expected run chase.

It was a spirited fightback by a Zimbabwe team, which has been weakened by the absence of 15 of its top players in a long running dispute with the Zimbabwe Cricket Union. Five of its line-up at the Oval were teenagers.

Nuwan Zoysa captured 3-19 and Farveez Maharoof 3-38 as the Sri Lankans, who shared the title with India two years ago after a final halted by storms, took early control of their first match.

Beaten by 152 runs by England on Saturday, Zimbabwe lost its first wicket on 23. Stuart Matsikenyeri had made 16 when Sri Lankan wicketkeeper Kumar Sangakkara dived to his right to take an acrobatic catch off the bowling of Nuwan Zoysa.

Spectacular catch

The Zimbabweans moved on to 43 in the 13th over when Maharoof took his first wicket. Brendan Taylor's square-cut had Upul Chandana taking a brilliant juggling catch at point moving to his left, clutching the ball at the third attempt.

Four runs after Taylor departed for 17, Sri Lanka struck again when Vusi Sibanda was caught at second slip by Mahela Jayawardene off lefthander Chaminda Vaas for nine.

Zoysa returned for his second spell in the 19th over and captured the fourth wicket when Dion Ebrahim gave Chandana his second catch and was out for three. At that stage Zimbabwe was struggling at 61 for four and, three runs later, the players were forced off the field by a heavy shower.

Mark Vermeulen, one of the few experienced players on the Zimbabwe side, made 25 before he was the fifth batsman to be dismissed, edging a catch to wicketkeeper Sangakkara with the score on 76.

Nine runs later, Zimbabwe captain Tatenda Taibu was Maharoof's third victim for 16 when the bowler found the edge of his bat and Sangakkara dived a long way to his right to take another acrobatic catch.

At that stage Zimbabwe was 85-6 in the 27th over and it looked like Sri Lanka would be chasing a small total.

But Zimbabwe's young tail decided to hit out and added 99 for the next two wickets before a late collapse ended the innings five balls short.

A milestone for Zoysa

Tinashe Panyangare joined Chigumbura and helped push the score on to 120 before he became Zoysa's 100th one-day International victim. The teenager pushed into the offside and lobbed a catch to Marvan Atapattu and departed for eight.

Chigumbura and Utseya took 11 off one over from Maharoof to push the score past 150 in the highest partnership of the innings.

Chigumbura swept Chandana for his fifth four to reach his 50 off 45 balls but Utseya was out for 31 going for another big hit.

The young off-break bowler lofted a ball to the long off boundary and Jayawardene ran 20 yards to take the catch just inside.

Two balls later, Chigumburu's innings ended when he was trapped lbw by Chandana and Sanath Jayasuriya bowled last man Edward Rainsford for three in the first ball of the final over. — AP

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