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Zimbabwe restored some lost pride by teaching Canada their place in life in their 3rd-Place playoff in King City on Monday. Having received some well-deserved stick following their tie in the group stage, Zimbabwe finally found their form and performed as they should have done in that first match - after being put into bat by Canada, the side suffered the early loss of Cephas Zhuwawo, but opener Hamilton Mazakadza (79) and Chamu Chibhabha (40) then went on to put on 89 runs for the second wicket, with Masakdaza in particularly imperious form. Tatenda Taibu played the role of middle-order anchor, not scoring much himself but helping to rotate the strike and give the more agressive men around him their chance to make the most of the weak Canadian bowling, with Elton Chigumbura's cameo appearance (25 runs off 8 balls) being particularly enjoyable. Even Keith Dabengwa got in on the action, with 16 from 6 deliveries, and Zimbabwe finished their innings with an impressive 184/5, by far the highest score of the tournament. Rao was the best of the Canadian bowlers, with figures of 2/33.

Canada were always going to have a hard time chasing, and between early wickets and some very stingy bowling - Ray Price and Chris Mpofu both matched Utseya's record for most economic spell in Twenty20, set only the day before, and added three wickets into the bargain for figures of 2/6 and 1/6 respectively for their 4-overs spells. Utseya himself chipped in with 3/26 from his 4 overs. Against that sort of determined attack, Canada had no chance, and with only 2 players reaching double figures (Samad 29, Bhatti 11), they were never in with a shout. They were finally bowled out at the end of the 19th over for a paltry 75, only barely "beating" the lowest score in T20 Internationals, currently held by Kenya.

The win will give Zimbabwe some confidence ahead of the Kenya leg of their tour, which gets underway with a tour match against Uganda on Wednesday - a side who, while well down the rankings, have tripped up both Kenya and Bermuda this year and shouldn't be underestimated. Full scorecard for this match is below the cut.
Zimbabwe 184/5 (20 overs; Masakadza 79, Balaji Rao 2/33), Canada 75 (19.2/20 overs; Samad 29, Utseya 3/26, Price 2/6). Zimbabwe win by 109 runs.

Zimbabwe snatched victory from Canada in the 3rd Al Barakh Cup match this evening, after a tie after 20 overs each led to the match being decided through a bowl-out.

Zimbabwe won the toss and elected to field, and took early blood when Canadian opener Mulla fell to Elton Chigumbura on the first ball of the match. Rizwan Cheema then went to town on the Zim bowling, smashing 23 off 11 balls before being dealt with by Chigumbura (2/31 from three overs), with Mohammad Iqbal and Abdool Samad both chipping in to take Canada to 71/4 at the halfway mark, helped by some uninspired bowling decisions by Utseya who again places far too much trust in Keith Dabengwa (0/25 from three overs) and failed to use his in-form bowlers to full effect. Canada ended their innings on 135/7 - higher than they should have been allowed to reach, but within Zimbabwe's grasp.

In reply, Cephas Zhuwawo's international debut stuck all the wrong notes as he was removed on his first ball faced, but Hamilton Masakadza, Chamu Chibhabha and Tatenda Taibu all played their part to help Zimbabwe get off to a respectable start, with Taibu's 37 being the best of the Zimbabwean scores. A typical Zimbabwe Collapse™ in the middle-order took the wind out of their innings, though, and left Canada in the driving seat. Elton Chigumbura's 30 put Zim back within a shot of the target, but the 10 runs required from the final over proved too much for Zim, who ended with their score level with Canada's - and they had a fielding error by a Canadian player to thank for even that.

This being Twenty20, ties aren't permitted, and so the match was decided on a bowl-out - Zimbabwe comfortable won that 3-1, but if truth be told Zimbabwe should never have allowed Canada to gain the upper hand in this match, and should never have allowed themselves to be taken to a bowl-out in the first place - the side is better than this, but poor on-field decisions (also pointed out by Alastair Campbell during his commentary on the match) saw Zimbabwe blow their advantage, just as they did against Sri Lanka. A very poor performance.

Full scorecard below the cut.
Canada 135/7 (20 overs; Jethi 24, Chigumbura 2/31), Zimbabwe 135/9 (20 overs; Taibu 37, Baidwan 3/27). Scores Tied; Zimbabwe win after bowl-out (Canada 1, Zimbabwe 3).

The schedule has been released for the Canada Cup Four Nations Twenty20 competition, and the sides will face off as follows:

10 October 2008         Sri Lanka v Zimbabwe
10 October 2008         Canada v Pakistan
11 October 2008         Canada v Zimbabwe
11 October 2008         Sri Lanka v Pakistan
12 October 2008         Pakistan v Zimbabwe
12 October 2008         Canada v Sri Lanka
13 October 2008         Final

Zimbabwe have been confirmed as taking part in the Canada Cup Four Nations Twenty20 tournament, to be held in Toronto in October, after West Indies pulled out of the contest. Canada, Sri Lanka and Pakistan are the other participants. The tourney will be held at the Maple Leaf ground in Toronto between 10-13 October - no detailed fixture list is available yet, but I'll post it once I have it.
CricInfo - West Indies pull out of Canada quadrangular

Netherlands pulled off a surprisingly thorough win against felow Associate side Scotland, although for both teams this was their final appearance of this World Cup. Going into the tournament, Scotland were the top-ranked of the 5 Associate sides (excluding Kenya, who appear on the main LG ICC rankings and not the Associate version), but they've underperformed in the West Indies and Netherland were pleased to take the opportunity to secure a win for themselves. Batting first, Scotland collapsed to 136 inside 35 overs, a total that Netherlands had no problems chasing down.

Canada weren't so lucky, although they did make New Zealand work during thier final group match. New Zealand batted first and raced their way to an impressive 363/5 from their 50 overs, including 101 from Lou Vincent. In reply, Canada got off to a speedy start thanks to John Davison, who until recently held the record for the fastest World Cup century - he seemed keen to repeat the feat here, and some lose bowling from the Kiwis, particularly Michael Mason, allowed Davison to cut loose. For a while it seemed Canada were on course for an unlikely win, but after Davison fell in the 10th over, the flow of runs dried to a trickle. Canada only just failed to bat out their 50 overs, but by then they were well off the total.
Netherlands beat Scotland by 8 wickets.
New Zealand beat Canada by 114 runs

Groups A and C got underway yesterday, with Australia meeting Scotland and Kenya facing Canada. There was no fairytale for the Scots, sadly as the Aussies ran up 334/6 from their alotted overs, with Ricky Ponting picking up 113 as the Scottish bowlers proved unable to get to grips with some aggressive Aussie batting. Come their own turn with the bat, the Saltires again looked somewhat out of their depth - only Colin Smith, with 51 runs to his name, put up any real fight as McGrath and Tait scythed through the batting order. The 203-run winning margin will probably have the anti-Associate mob baying again.

Better luck for Kenya, though, in their Group C opener against Canada. The two sides have met several times this year already - the record before this match was 3-1 to Kenya, and yesterday's outing stuck to the form book as Kenya eased themselves to another win. Canada were bowled out for a respectable 199 in the first innings, with a series of comedic run-outs in the final overs somewhat spoiling their effort. Geoff Barnett top-scored with 41, while Jimmy Kamande (2/25) and Steve Tikolo (2/34) did the work for Kenya with the ball. Tikolo again showed his class with the bat, unbeated on 72 after Kenya rattled off the required total inside 44 overs & for the loss of just 3 wickets. What odds on Kenya carrying the Associate banner to the Super 8, I wonder?
Australia beat Scotland by 203 runs
Kenya beat Canada by 7 wickets

Thursday's matches: Sri Lanka v Bermuda in Group B, and the important one (for me, anyway), Ireland v Zimbabwe in Group D.

Apart from the Zimbabwe v Bermuda match, covered elsewhere, there were three other warm-up matched yesterday, all featuring the sides seeded 9-16: Ireland v Canada, Bangladesh v Scotland, and Kenya v Netherlands. All three went according to the seedings, so no surprises this time around.

Bangaladesh contained Scotland's scoring during the first innings and left themselves with a total of just 152 to chase, and with Habibul Bashar and Mohammad Ashraful both in good form the chase was over within 35 overs. Ireland trounced Canada after bowling them out for just 116 - Dave Langford-Smith picking up 4 wickets along the way. Ireland's bowling form has improved greatly during the warm-up games, and they'll now be seen as the best of the 5 sides who qualified through the ICC Trophy - and from a Zimbabwean point of view, that's quite worrying. Kenya maintained their winning record with a close 9-run win over Netherlands - three Dutch batsmen hit half-centuries to leave their side looking on-course for an upset, but their innings collapsed after the run-out of Ryan ten Doeschate.
Bangladesh beat Scotland by 7 wickets
Ireland beat Canada by 7 wickets
Kenya beat Netherlands by 9 runs

Three other warm-up matches yesterday, apart from the Australia - Zimbabwe clash which I've covered separately. Bangladesh pulled off the first upset of the tournament by beating New Zealand (fresh from giving the Aussies a hammering) by 2 wickets, with Mashrafe Mortaza (4/44 and 30*) being key to the Tigers' performance. Maybe all those ODIs against Zimbabwe have been good practice, and here's hoping Bangladesh can carry on performing once the group stage starts.

Elsewhere, the matches went according to the script. India easily saw off the Dutch challenge, after posting 300 from their 50 overs & bundling the Netherlands out within 38 overs, while Pakistan likewise had few problems dealing with Canada.
Bangladesh beat New Zealand by 2 wickets
Pakistan beat Canada by 77 runs
India beat Netherlands by 182 runs

The next round of warm-up matches begins on Thursday, with four matches featuring the teams seeded 9-16 in the competition: Bermuda v Zimbabwe, Canada v Ireland, Bangladesh v Scotland and Kenya v Netherlands.

Bermuda saw off Canada in a rain-affected match on Wednesday to secure their place in Saturday's tri-series final, where they'll meet Zimbabwe. The two also meet in the final round-robin match on Thursday, which should give them a chance to size each other up before the final.

Canada once again suffered from batting woes, having been reduced to 55/5 at one point before the tail-enders did enough to avoid another 2-figure total. Bermuda were shaky at one point themsevles, but after the second rain interruption came back to finish off the game with comparitive ease. That said, based on these performances, one wouldn't expect Zimbabwe to have a problem clinching a much-needed series win - but stranger things have happened...
Canada 157/9 (49 ovrs); Bermuda 153/7 (42.3 ovrs - target 150 from 44 overs)
Bermuda win by 3 wickets (D/L method)

There's a headline I don't get to use very often. :) Zimbabwe won the opening match of the ICC Tri-Series in Trinidad by a convincing 143 runs on Tuesday, with Piet Rinke putting his woeful series against West Indies behind him by knocking a rapid 72 off 62 balls, earning himself the man-of-the-match award in the process. While there was a typically Zimbabwean batting collapse further down the order, Rinke, Chibhabha, Taylor and Chigumbura between them did enough to make sure Zim posted a defensible total.

Zim's field performance made sure the total was academic, however, as two run-outs in the first two overs saw Canada get off to the worst possible start, with Mupariwa and Mawhire also contributing to leave the Canadians at 4/4 in the 5th over. The middle order tried to restore some respectability to the score, but with the best of the bunch only managing to score 16, it wasn't really a contest.

A win by Bermuda in the second match on Wednesday will put Zimbabwe's place in the series final beyond doubt, but with a bonus point already under their wings that spot should already be secure. If winning is a habit, then this outing will do Zim's youngsters a world of good.
Zimbabwe 218/8 (50 ovrs); Canada 75 (28.5 ovrs)
Zimbabwe win by 143 runs