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Untitled Document
 Pietersen, Mascarenhas star in England's win against Zimbabwe
14th Sep 2007 08:02 IST
Agencies
Kevin Pietersen (79) belted the Zimbabwean bowlers before teammate Dimitry Mascarenhas (3/18) triggered a batting collapse as England whipped the giant-killers by 50 runs in their Group B match of the Twenty20 World Cup at Newlands in Cape Town Thursday.
Zimbabwe who shocked World Champions Australia in their first match failed to weave the magic again as riding on Pietersen's audacious 37-ball 79 and Paul Collingwood's 28-ball 37, England reached 188/9.
In reply, Zimbabwe cruised to 74 inside nine overs before Mascarenhas' three-wicket burst completely unhinged the side, which could manage only 138/7 after their allotted 20 overs. For them, Brendan Taylor top scored with 47 off 39 balls, while Vusi Sibanda contributed 29.
Apart from Mascarenhas, Chris Schoefield shone with the ball for England, claiming two for 15 runs.
Opting to bat, England lost Daren Maddy (14) and Luke Wright (0) off successive balls in Elton Chigumbura's second over and then Matt Prior (20) in the sixth before Pietersen, declared Man of the Match, and Collingwood joined hands and started the counter-attack.
Pietersen's 37-ball 79 included seven fours and four sixes. Pietersen hit Keith Dabengwa for three successive fours, playing left-handed pulls, and then sent him over mid-wicket to step on gas.
Collingwood joined the party hoicking Gary Brent over mid-wicket and then he chose Justice Chibhabha for similar treatment.
But once Prosper Utseya removed Pietersen and Collingwood returned following a mix-up, run rate took a slight dip even though England had little problem in setting a stiff target for the minnows.
Chigumbara was Zimbabwe's most successful bowler, picking up 4/31.
Chasing 189, Zimbabwe had a decent start as openers Sibanda and Taylor cruised to 74 in 8.3 overs before Mascarenhas struck. Sibanda top-edged the delivery to perish, while Zimbabwe got the biggest setback when Tatenda Taibu (2) was castled by the bowler in his next over.
Three runs later, Taylor too perished in the same fashion off the same bowler and that triggered a batting collapse Zimbabwe could not recover from.
Down the order, only Hamilton Masakadza (27) and Utseya (13 not out) managed double figure. |
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