Ryan Burl’s power hitting helped set Zimbabwe to a rare T20I victory over a full member when they beat Bangladesh by 10 runs and sealed the three-match series 2-1 in the third match, which was played at Harare Sports Club on Tuesday.
After winning the toss and electing to bat, Zimbabwe lost their way after the dismissal of the Regis Chakabva for 17 in the third over. The wheels were coming off very fast as they lost 6 wickets for 76, including that of their inform batsman, Sikandar Raza, for a duck.
Someone had put his hand and be counted, and who else other than Burl? He helped Zimbabwe to victory in the same format last year when he helped to square the series.
He just loves batting against Bangladesh.
When you lose wickets in cricket, you try and take the game deep to try and give your team a chance, and towards the end, you try and target bowlers to try and increase your run rate.
Burl did all that and then decided that it was a time in the 15th over and the poor victim being Nasum Ahmed.
Burl went berserk, hitting the first huge six over long and went to the roof between the media centre and the Centurion pub, and the ball had to be replaced.
The second six was equally big over a sweep over square leg, and the near-capacity crowd went into a frenzy.
He wasn’t done yet, and his third six went towering over deep midwicket, and Zimbabwe had now crossed the 100 runs mark in the over, which looked impossible when they were reeling at 76-6.
He repeated the same shot over deep midwicket, and the same result, six and you could sense that he was now going for the world record of 6 maximums in an over.
The left-hander then couldn’t connect properly down the ground and could only fetch four runs, much to the crowd’s disappointment, who could sense that equaling the record was just two big hits away.
To show that his big hitting wasn’t a fluke, Burl finished the over with a big six over long-off, and you couldn’t hear yourself as the raucous Harare Sports Club broke into song and dance.
By scoring 34 runs in that over, Burl had broken his record of 30 runs he hit Shakib Al Hasan in 2019 in Bangladesh.
Luke Jongwe joined in as the two plundered 79 runs in 31 balls.
What was impressive about Jongwe was his straight hitting and his shot of the day has to be the big six he hit Mustafizur Rahman over long-on. He had missed two balls before, and the Jongwe of old would have tried a cheeky shot over the keeper, but today he backed himself to clear the ropes by playing orthodox shots.
Jongwe (35)and Burl (54) were eventually dismissed, probably 15 runs short of where they had hoped to put their team after wrestling back the control of the match from Bangladesh.
156-8, at the break Zimbabwe, were the happier of the two sides.
The home team has surprised many by making some wholesale changes bringing three new bowlers with a rare series win against a full member. Victor Nyauchi, Brad Evans and Jones Masara are coming in for the rested Richard Ngarava, Tanaka Chivanga and Wellington Masakadza.
Nyauchi repaid the faith immediately when he struck in his first over by removing the dangerous Litton Das cheaply.
He returned again in his second over to remove the debutant Parvez Hossain Emon, and Zimbabwe were in a row.
The Chevrons continued to strike at regular intervals. If they were not taking wickets, they were giving away very little in terms of boundaries as the Tigers went for 8 overs without scoring a boundary, further compounding their run chase.
Evans, like Nyauchi, turned the match on its head when he removed the dangerous Mahmudullah and Mosaddek Hossain in consecutive deliveries, much to the joy of his father, Craig, a former Zimbabwe international, who was watching from the old changing rooms.
There was no coming back from here for Bangladesh as they eventually fell short by 10 runs, and the home team continued on their upward trajectory since Dave Houghton took over as coach.
Bangladesh stand-in captain Mosaddek was disappointed and is now looking forward to the One Day Internationals, a format they have had a lot of success in recently.
“From the beginning to the 15th over, we were ahead, but after the 15th over, we were out of control of the match. Ryan Burl made a difference in this match. Batting-wise, we lost wickets too early, so this is the difference.
“From the beginning, our bowling was outstanding, you have to trust your main bowlers, but it happens in T20 cricket. Everyone knows how good we are with ODIs. Obviously, we are very confident going into the ODIs,” he said
Former Zimbabwe captain Houghton, who is being credited with the quick turnaround of Zimbabwe’s fortune, was naturally a happy man.
“I am delighted with the guys, the way they have been playing cricket from the qualifiers. We talked a couple of times about the brand of cricket we wanted to play, which is where we take the positive approach. We never give in on that. Today we were in a tricky position, and a couple of players came down the order and got us a match-winning score. So I am happy with the cricket we are playing. I hope it continues for a long time.”
