da brdice： The unexpected never happened as pathetic Zimbabwe were forthe second time put in their place by the unbeaten SriLankans who won by the comfortable margin of 79 runs Tuesdayto make sure of playing in Sunday’s final in the KhaleejTimes Trophy here
Rehan Siddiqui31-Oct-2001The unexpected never happened as pathetic Zimbabwe were forthe second time put in their place by the unbeaten SriLankans who won by the comfortable margin of 79 runs Tuesdayto make sure of playing in Sunday’s final in the KhaleejTimes Trophy here at the Sharjah Stadium.Requiring 251 for victory to have an outside chance ofmaking the final, Zimbabwe, finished at 171 for eight intheir allotted 50 over. As it happened like in their twoprevious outings, Zimbabwe batsmen from the outset neverappeared to be with any chance of upsetting the applecart.Apart from the second wicket stand between Stuart Carlisle(37) and Trevor Gripper (26) that realized 61 runs,Zimbabwe’s batting woes continued as wickets fell at regularinterval.Although Doug Marillier, batting lower down, managed anunbeaten 52, hitting two fours off the last two deliveriesto reach the landmark, there was no resistance at the otherend.The Sri Lankans always looked in command and bowled tightlywithout ever looking menacing and were never threatened byan inept and out of depth Zimbabwe batting for whom thelosing streak extended to 15 and could become 16 Wednesdaywhen they face Pakistan unless the latter give a similarperformance as that which handed Bangladesh their mostmemorable triumph in 1999 World Cup.In an uninteresting tie that provided hardly any worthwhileindividual feat, Sri Lanka’s stylish batsman MahelaJayawardena was named Man-of-the Match for his 63 thatproved to the highest score of the match.Earlier, diminutive Jayawardena (63) and reliable RusselArnold (55) put on 111 for the fourth wicket to steer SriLanka from possible low score against the modest Zimbabwebowling resources.The two joined in the rescue act at the total of 62 for withthree skipper Sanath Jayasuriya (25), Avishka Gunawardena(14) and Marvan Atapattu (9) back in the dressing room.Slowly and gradually the two got on top of the Zimbabweattack and reached fifties before throwing their wicketswhen centuries were up for grabs. Arnold hooked straightinto the throat of Brent off Streak. Jayawardena holed outto Gripper off Marillier.For Arnold it was his first dismissal in three outings. Ofthe later batsmen, only Kumar Sangakkara made anysignificant contribution in his 35 before losing his stumpsaiming for a big hit off medium pacer Gary Brent, the bestof Zimbabwe bowlers.Although former skipper Heath Streak picked up four wicketsincluding both the openers he proved expensive and conceded59 runs from his quota of 10 overs, his first over costing14 runs.