Bennett hits fifty as Zimbabwe XI fall short in Netherlands warm-up

Netherlands – 191 all out in 42.2 overs (Musa Ahmed 84, Max O’Dowd 26, Colin Ackermann 26; Johnathan Campbell 4/35, Nkosana Mpofu 1/4, Luke Jongwe 1/13)

Zimbabwe XI – 182 all out in 34.5 overs (Brian Bennett 53, Nyasha Mayavo 47, Luke Jongwe 22*; Paul van Meekeren 4/27, Aryan Dutt 2/18, Fred Klaassen 2/33)

 

Netherlands won by nine runs

Despite fine knocks by Brian Bennett and Nyasha Mayavo, the Zimbabwe XI team went down to a narrow nine-run defeat at the hands of the touring Netherlands side in their warm-up match at Old Hararians Sports Club on Sunday.

 

The visitors won the toss and batted first.

 

They lost Vikram Singh, bowled by Ernest Masuku for four in the first over, but then Max O’Dowd and Nadeem Musa Ahmed took the score to 69 at a fine pace until Carl Mumba had O’Dowd caught for 26 in the 11th over.

There followed another good partnership between Ahmed and Colin Ackermann (26), who added 67 for the third wicket.

The Netherlands were looking very good when Ackermann was out at 136 for three in the 25th over, but none of the later batters even reached double figures.

Ahmed did most of the scoring until he was sixth out at 182, caught off Johnathan Campbell for 84 off 104 balls, with 10 fours.

Campbell then had a remarkable run of success, as in his next over he took three wickets as the Netherlands plummeted to 191 all out in 42.2 overs.

Their last five wickets fell in less than five overs for only nine runs, while Campbell, the only bowler to take more than one wicket, had figures of four for 35 in 10 overs.

This brought Zimbabwe XI back into the match, only for them to fall immediately into difficulties when they batted.

They lost Nkosana Mpofu (0), Chamu Chibhabha (1) and Timycen Maruma (5) with only 17 runs on the board in the sixth over, Paul van Meekeren taking two of the wickets.

After Campbell went for 11, Bennett with 53 and Mayavo with 47 shared the best partnership of the innings, adding 66 for the fifth wicket and raising hopes of victory.

After they went, Luke Jongwe was joined by Carl Mumba, who hit 20 off 11 balls, with a six and three fours, but when he was seventh out at 168 the innings went into decline.

The last three batters scored only seven runs off 13 balls between them, all out at 182, leaving Jongwe not out with 22, unable to find the reliable partner he needed.

Van Meekeren took the last two wickets to finish with four for 27.

Attention now turns to the three-match ODI series between Zimbabwe and the Netherlands which gets underway at Harare Sports Club on Tuesday, with the other two games scheduled for Thursday and Saturday at the same venue.

 

MATCH SCHEDULE – ZIMBABWE VS NETHERLANDS ODI SERIES