THIRD ONE-DAY INTERNATIONAL: WEST INDIES VERSUS ZIMBABWE
3rd ODI, National Cricket Stadium, Saint George’s Grenada, 22 February 2013
Result: West Indies (215/5) beat Zimbabwe (211/9) by 5 wickets.
Hosts West Indies beat Zimbabwe in their third and final One-Day International (ODI) match, to complete a series sweep.
For the third time in a row, Brendan Taylor won the toss and, as he did in the second ODI at the same venue – the National Cricket Stadium in Saint George’s, Grenada – on Sunday, he opted to bat.
Once again, Zimbabwe’s frailties with the bat were exposed as wickets fell cheaply.
Tinotenda Mawoyo was the first to go, when he was trapped leg-before-wicket by Sunil Narine. The Zimbabwe opener went for nine runs to the first ball of the 10th over. Hamilton Masakadza was the second to fall, bowled by stand-in captain Dwayne Bravo for six.
The departure of Vusimuzi Sibanda (41) and Taylor (39) – who was Veerasammy Permaul’s first victim on his way to three for 40 in his 10 overs – then triggered a middle order collapse for Zimbabwe from which they never recovered. And so their bowlers found themselves having to defend 211 runs.
They would never be enough moreso as the Zimbabwe seam attack had showed in the earlier two ODIs a lack of penetration.
On a day when Prosper Utseya had requested to be rested due to fatigue, it was left to the talented but inexperienced spin pair of Natsai M’shangwe and debutant Tinotenda Mutombodzi to deal with the host batsmen.
The duo showed a lot of promise with Mutombodzi dismissing both West Indies openers: Kieran Powell (42) whom he had caught by Malcolm Waller and Ramnaresh Sarwan (19), caught and bowled, and then catching Narsingh Deonarine (21) from the bowling of Masakadza.
But West Indies number three Darren Bravo showed his maturity as he curbed his natural attacking instinct to build an innings and with it victory. He was unbeaten on 72 runs, which he crafted from 103 balls, five of them fours.
Bravo was chosen man of the match and also clinched the best player of the series title with his total of 172 runs throughout.
After victories in the first and second ODIs, the five-wicket win on Tuesday gave West Indies a clean sweep of the three-match series.
The tour now moves to Antigua, for two Twenty20 matches at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in North Sound, on Saturday and Sunday.
